


Part of your world

by Dontatmethanks2



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 104th troops are teens, Angst, Armin loves the ocean, Eren Is a Little Shit, F/M, Female Hange Zoë, Grumpy Levi, Hange being Hange, Historia and Eren are complicated, Hurt/Comfort, I swear this isn’t the little mermaid, Love, Multi, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Other minor characters - Freeform, fictional marine creatures, hange falling for a half human half fish, hange loves her job, levi being cute, levi learns social skills, levihan - Freeform, mermaid au, merman levi, mikasa and Jean are dating, mikasa and Sasha brotp, mythological seas creatures, poor levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2020-07-23 07:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20004229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dontatmethanks2/pseuds/Dontatmethanks2
Summary: Hange zoe is a marine biologist/trained vet who works at an aquatic rehabilitation center,They specialize in rare species.She becomes in charge of taking care of the worlds grumpiest mermaid. What they both don’t know is that they will change each other’s life and learn to be part of each other’s world.





	1. Chapter 1

To say that Hange was excited was a complete understatement. She was over the moon.

The Sina Aqautic Rehabilitation center was getting a new addition to their family and Hange was going to be in charge of their care. 

She checked her wrist watch, twelve thirty. The patient should be arriving from transport at around one thirty, so that meant she had about an hour to prepare their file and enclosure.

They recived many types of patients like dolphins, whales, sea lions, sea turtles and etc. but this was the first time that Erwin had put her in charge of one of the more...rarer species.

Her assistant Moblit entered her office, a wetsuit in each hand. 

“Transport is almost here, I brought your gear.” He tells her gesturing to the items in his hands.

Hange looks up from her desk and raises her eyebrows. “ they’re early.”

Moblit hands her a suit, “this one sounds urgent.”

After quickly changing Into their wet gear they make their way down to the loading dock just in time to see the transport boat pull up. Erwin and the others are already waiting for them.

“Nanaba and Mike will help you guys with the intake.” Erwin says to her and she nods firmly as the boat docks and a two mean haul a large casket sized container, she can hear the sound of sloshing water coming from inside. Frowns and approaches them as the set it down on the dock. 

“Please tell me that my patient is not in there.” She said in an annoyed voice, the men just shrug and begin to help her open the container. A bald man walks up to Erwin who stands behind her, Nanaba and Mike are also helping to open the container.

“He’s sedated for now, we found him near the reef with his tail all bloodied. We decided this was the best place to bring him.” He says to Erwin in a gruff voice.

“Thank you Pixis.” Erwin thanks him and shakes his hand.

They finally remove the lid from the container and Hange’s eyes widen. Inside the container was no shark or dolphin but an actual living beastly breathing mermaid.

Err-Merman actually as she looked closer. His skin was pale and he had straight jet black hair that fell over his eyes. She examined his tail, his scales were a beautiful black and grey ombré color. One of the fins of his tail was torn and bleeding profusely.

Hange clears her throat, “ we need a stretcher.” That seemed to snap everybody to attention. Moblit runs to retrieve said stretcher and Nanaba hands her and aid kit and stethoscope. Hange places the stethoscope over where she would guess his heart would be.

“Pulse is thready.” She says firmly and notices a deep slash beneath his ribs and a deep bruise beginning to form around it. There were a few more shallow cut around his left shoulder, she grimaces. 

“What the hell happened to you.” She whispers

They tranport him to the medbay via stretcher where they worked on his injuries and prepped him for his move in.

Hange was wrapping his his tail with waterproof bandages when he began to stir awake. Preparing for his reaction she worked quickly but tried not to apply too much pressure.

The mer hissed in pain as he tried to move away from her. It was then when she noticed eyes, they were a steely grey, filled with fear and anger towards her. She backed away from the medical table he lay on and raised hands, palms facing him.

“It’s okay I’m trying to help, try not to move to much okay?” 

He only glared at her harder and struggled against his bindings, hissing and thrashing.

“Hey,hey,hey now calm down.” She says in a calm voice and places a gloved hand on his hip, right where his fishtail begins. 

The halfling freezes and stares at with wide eyes, thin eyebrows squeezed towards each other as he bares his sharp teeth at her. 

She made a move to loosen the straps so he wouldn’t hurt himself and Moblit tried to stop her.

“Miss Hange-”

But it was too late, her patient lurched forward and bit her on the arm hard. She attempted to pull away but be wouldn’t let go, he only sank his teeth deeper. 

“Sedate him.” She says to Moblit, but contains eye contact with her patient.

The mer’s eyes widen when Moblit injects him with the syringe. The gills on his neck flutter slightly as he detaches from Hange’s arm and he slumps backwards. Hange ignores the blood that begins to bead and watches as his eyelids begin to droop.

“Hurts...” he whispers hoarsely before the drugs pull him under.

Hange and Moblit both stare at each other in surprise.

“He spoke..” Hange whispers, a big grin spreads across her face.

There were able to relocate him to his personal enclosure without hassle, due to him being sedated. His enclosure was fairly large, about the size of a regular lions enclosure. It was fitted with a man made beach that lead to an indoor observation tank underground. At the edge of the water was a resting spot made out of rocks and a hammock hanged bettween two fake trees, the cieling was also open to the outdoors.

Hange observed the merman who was resting in the hammock. She did countless for research on his species but never has examined one in real life until now. She knew that they were a very rare encounter and were hard to deal with both biologically and behaviorally. Apparently they found him entangled in a fishing net near a coral reef. She frowned at the thought of that poor creature bleeding out in the water, at the mercy of reef shark. This was definitely the work of some careless fishermen, hopefully he wasn’t traumatized enough to forget what had actually happened.

He had been beginning to stir awake for the past few minutes and she decided that he may be hungry when he fully comes too. Hange grabs an ice bucket full of fresh sardines and a first aid kit and heads down the observation deck and into his enclosure. She approaches the mer slowly, making sure he can hear her footsteps. As soon as he catches sight of her her recoils into the hammock and hisses. 

“It’s alright, I’m not gonna hurt you.” She says softly and places the bucket on top of one of the rocks in front of him. He only glares at her, wary of her movements.

“I brought you some food.” She continues, gesturing to the bucket, and sits beside it placing the kit behind her and crisscrosses her legs.

At the mention of food he perked up a little, just a little. He narrowed his eyes into silver slits and watched her for a moment, she grinned back at him. 

“.....that better not me mackerel.” He spoke in a deep voice. 

It surprised her when he spoke, she didn’t expect him to even speak an entire sentence. She wanted to hear more.

“Sardines, they’re fresh,” she speaks up, “ the dolphins love them.” 

He glares at her again, “ I’m not a dolphin.” 

She laughs and he flinches, surprised at the sound.

“Oh I know, we call your kind merpeople, and I’m very excited to have you in my care.” She explains to him, eyes sparkling brightly.

He eyes her suspiciously, and once he decided she wasn’t going to move he slid off the hammock ,careful of his tail, and onto one of the rocks. Keeping his gaze on her her snatched the bucket and begins to rip the heads off the fish voilently. Hange smiles as she watches him eat, his glare lessened slightly.

“Do you...do you have a name?” She asks him as she wipes a smudge off of the lens of her glasses.

He pauses his chewing and narrows his eyes at her

“ I’m Hange Zoe, you can call me whichever.” 

He hesitates, lowering the bucket and swallowing before speaking. 

“...Levi..it’s just Levi.” 

Hange tilts her head and smiles like a puppy. “Nice to meet you Levi, your English is good, where are you from.” She asks him and notices that he has already emptied the entire bucket of sardines. Levi shrugs, before clutching his bandaged shoulder and wincing. Hange moves closer, “careful with your wounds, you don’t want the to rip open again.” 

Levi shrinks away from her and curls into himself, letting out low whine of pain. Hange leans back a bit and lifts her palms out to him, as if she was trying to tame a wild horse. 

“ Levi, it okay you can trust me I’m hre to take care of you, I won’t hurt you I promise.” She reassures him softly. He looks up at her slowly and he shivers painfully, the meds were wearing off. 

“Let me help you, okay?” She asks him again, not moving and inch. Levi stares at her and then his eyes drift to her bandaged arm, he blinks. 

He hurt her, why wouldn’t she want to hurt him?

Hange notices this and places a hand on it. “Don’t worry it doesn’t hurt, I’m not angry.” 

Levi blinks in surprise.

“You were scared, I understand,” she continues with a sympathetic smile. “ I’ve been bitten scratched and mawled plenty of times, it comes with the job.”

He relaxes a little, now that he knows she wasn’t angry about what he did to her.

“Can I check your injuries?” She asks him, taking a tiny step towards him. A few seconds pass before he finally nods, dark fringe falling in front of his face.

Hange kneels in front of him slot with the aid kit, letting him watch her movements carefully. 

“I’m going to clean you wounds and replace the bandages okay?” She briefs him and he nods stiffly, not taking his eyes off of her. She gently unwraps the bandages off of his injured tail and grimaces at the sight. One of the fins of his tail was torn off, it wasn’t bleeding anymore but it looked painful. 

“Do you remember what happened to you?” Hange asked him as she tends to it. He looks away from her and clenches his jaw. She looks back a him for a moment before continuing her work.

“It’s okay we don’t have to talk about it.” 

After thourougly cleaning the tail she replaces the bandages with clean ones and moved to the large gash underneath his ribs. As soon as her fingertips brush the bandages he groans in pain and curls into himself.

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes and removes her hand, “ that one is pretty bad huh? You had some internal bleeding.” 

Levi doesn’t understand but he nods anyway and allows her to continue. A few minutes go by as she works on him, his gaze seemed to be fixated on her face the whole time and when she would look at him he would glare and look away, she chuckled at this. 

“What are those?” He asks gesturing at the frames that rested on her nose.

“Oh these?” She says as she removes them from her face so he can examine them. He nods, brushing his hair away from his face to look closer.

“They’re called glasses, they help me see better. I was born with poor eyesight you see.” She tells him while sliding the back on he nose.

“They’re shitty.” He responds blandly, making her snort loudly.

“I see you have an extensive vocabulary Mr. Grumpy” Hange chuckles as she finishes the last of his bandages.

“ Shut up shitty glasses,” He frowns. “That’s what I’ll call you, shitty glasses.” He says, pleased with himself and hange laughs, eyes crinkling in delight.

She’s gets up, still chuckling to herself, and grabs the empty bucket and kit.

“I’ll bring you something for the pain, grumpy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> I originally started this fic on tumblr (@dontatmethanks)and was persuaded to post it on here, thank you @mischievous-maiden!<3
> 
> Btw I’m just going to disclose the fact that I don’t know anything about marine biology and such so bare with me D:
> 
> Thanks for reading! <3


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi learns about books,Hange gladly feeds his curiosity.

It’s been three days they received Levi into their care, and Hange has maintained a vigilance that can only be compared to that of a mother bear. She made sure he was comfortable and fed, checking his injuries twice a day much to his annoyance. It was like pulling teeth when it came to giving him the pain meds and antibiotics, he absolutely refused to injest them.

“Levi, I swear they don’t taste like anything! All you have to do is swallow.” Hange urged him, thrusting the hand that was filled with the medication in his face. He moved away from her and growled low in his throat.

“ I’m not putting those in my mouth.” He seethes at her while glaring at the pills and baring his teeth.

Hange sighs and drops her arm, settling her bottom back on the rock she was sitting on. 

“Mm, well I guess I can just give them to you through an injection then.” She says in a cheery tone as she pulls out a syringe from her kit next to her. When Levi sees the sharp glint of the need he immediately wrenched himself away from her, scooting backwards and hissing. His injured tail scrapes against the rocks which causes him to howl in pain. Hange drops the syringe back into the kit and throws her hands up.

“Okay, no needles got it.” And when he didn’t move or look at her hange shuffled a little closer , “hey it’s okay, I promised I wouldn’t hurt you right? I just want make sure you’re comfortable.” She says in a reassuring tone.

Levi looks at her this time and at her empty hands, then uncurls himself and moves closer to her before saying, “just give me those.” And pointing to the pill bottles sitting next to her kit. Hange smiled and nodded before retrieving the correct dosage. She reaches out to him with her empty hand and gestures towards his hand.

He blinks slowly and stares at her hand before hesitantly placing his hand in hers. She tugs him forward and he freezes as she drops the pills in his hand. She notices that his nails are pretty sharp but odd thing about the was that they were clean. 

Levi snatches his hand back and shoved the pills in his mouth before she can stop him. He chews them violently and Hange just gapes at him when he swallows.

“There that wasn’t so bad huh?” Hange grins at him and he just wrinkles his nose at her.

“Tasted like shit.” 

Hange laughs before saying, “you were supposed to swallow them instead.” And zips her kit closed, watching him slide into the water slowly wincing slightly. Leaning against the rocks he flexes his tail a bit before dipping his entire body beaneath the surface.

She decides to leave him alone for a while, Erwin needs her to get some paperwork done anyways. She collects her things before making her way out of the enclosure and up the observation deck and into the research building. The facility was built like a campus of sorts, and split into three large buildings that they called wings. The research building was on the left side of the main building and the building to the right was where the medical wing was and all the team training took place. Behind the buildings were extensions that lead to multiple enclosures that were modeled after zoos and sanctuaries. 

She made her way to her office, which was conveniently in the research building, but before she would stop by Erwin’s office to brief him on her patient’s recovery. 

“Dr.Hange.” He greeted her as she walked in and sat on the the couch near the door, sighing contentedly. 

“How is the mer doing?” He asked, not looking up from the paperwork he was filling out.

“Oh Levi? He’s healing okay, enough for him to go in the water. His tail is what I’m more worried about, it’s gonna affect his ability to swim.” She explains to him in a serious tone. Erwin looks up at her and folds his arm on the desk in front of him.

“Ive seen the x-rays, he won’t be able to survive on his own like that.” 

Hange nods. “So this won’t be a catch and release thing?” 

Erwin only nods. Hange frowns as she gets up from her seat and dismisses herself to her office. She felt bad for Levi, they would treat him well here but the fact that he won’t be able to survive on his own is quite sad. They had a few patients like him who will be spending the rest of their lives here, retired from the wildlife. Hange hums to herself quietly looking through his file that was filled with notes she wrote during observation. She scribbled down every detail she knew about from his behavior to his injuries, his preferred food, hair color etc.

She was hoping for him to tell her about his life in the wild, if he had some sort of pod or wa he alone, but she couldn’t pry anything from him. He only spoke to her when he needed something, or when he was curious enough to ask about human objects. Smiling to herself she closed the file.

He would be taken care of, she’d make sure of it.

By the time she finishes her paperwork it’s already seven pm and her being a workaholic decides she’d stay overnight. She wanted to observe Levi tonight just in case. 

Grabbing a couple of her books from the bookshelf in her office she made her into the observation deck. She wondered if the mer could read or even write, he seemed fluent in his English so she decided to test it out. Making her way into his enclosure she notices that he’s not anywhere near the resting area. She looked up at the setting sun and then at the water, he was probably exploring underneath the water.

Hange plops herself on one of the rocks near the edge of the water and rolls up the sleeves of the pants she changed into. She dips her feet into to the water sighing contentedly and moves them around a bit. There’s some movement to her right but she pretends to ignore it. A slightly webbed hand grabs her right foot and tosses it out of the water making her fall back a little, she cackles and wiggles her toes. 

She moves back towards the edge and is met with Levi’s pissed face, thin eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.

“What are you doing you shitty human?” He grinds out.

Hange giggles and crosses her legs, “just making sure the water temperature is right.”

“It’s fine.” He glares at her, “keep your disgusting human feet out of the water I swim in”

“Okay, okay I’m sorry.” Hange giggles at his sour expression. “ How is your tail?”

Levi shrugs and looks away, crossing his arms over the rocky edge and placing his chin on top of them. “Hurts when I move it too much, makes me swim all weird.” He tells he in a bored tone.

“That’s because your missing a fin...you won’t be able to survive on your own like that.” She cringes when she explains it to him. She can see his face fall a little, he almost looks sad.

Hange clears her throat awkwardly and grabs one of the books she brought.

“I have something for you.” She tells him and he looks at her curiously.

“What is it?” He asks her.

“It’s a book.” She tells him moving closer and showing it to him. Her looks at it then gives her a blank stare.

“What the hell is a book?”

Hange snorts and the flips through the pages . “A book can be something to learn from or it can be a form of entertainment, this one for example is called an ‘encyclopedia of marine life’. ”

She stops at a random page and places it on the space between them. She point later at the picture of a sunfish before saying, “it tells you information about practically every creature in the sea.” Levi scoots closet to examine the page. “Except you guys, encyclopedias are outdated haha.”

Levi was just staring at the picture, he looked at her and then back to the picture.

“What does it say?” 

Ah, she figured.

“Don’t worry we’ll work on teaching you how to read.” Levi looks up at her confusion plastered all over his features. She just smiles and picks up the book.

“For now I’ll just read it to you.” She says, “get comfy.” She places the book on her lap and flips back to the beginning and begins to read in a soft tone. He listens, head resting against the palm of his hand, leaning to inspect every picture she shows him. He forgets about the pain coming from his injuries, he forgets about the fact that he won’t be able to swim on his own anymore. He just hangs on to every picture and every word that comes out of her mouth. He take a good look at the woman who focuses on the page infront of her. He observes her facial features, dark brown eyes, hooked nose , soft brown locks of wavy hair pulled back into a shitty looking ponytail. He normally detests humans, but this human, he thinks....this one is okay. 

By the time she gets to the twentieth page she stops and looks at him. He’s asleep on the rock next to her, curled Into himself, gills fluttering softly. He looks peaceful when he lets his guard down. Hange smiles and closes the book which causes him to jolt awake, rubbing at his bleary eyes.

“I think the hammock would be more comfortable,” she says to him gesturing at the hanging object behind her. “ for your tail.”

He blinks and nods.

“Need some help getting up there?” 

He hesitates for a minute before nodding slowly .

He lets her help him onto the hammock, she is careful of his injuries. After he is situated she grabs the books and bids him a goodnight.

“Wait.” He stops her, clawed hand grabbing at her sweater. She stops and raises an eyebrow at him.

“Can you...can you uh leave it, the book?” He asks her in a small voice gesturing towards the encyclopedia, it surprises her how shy he sounds. She gives him a tender smile.

“Of course.” She says, handing it to him. He grabs it and tucks it under his arm, as if it were some sort of precious treasure.

“Thank you.” He whispers, eyelids drooping a little.

Hange’s smile only gets wider.

“No problem grumpy, good night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that’s the second chap for you guys ahhh! Thank you for all the nice comments and Kudos 🤧💕 I’m honestly winging this story but the inspiration is coming to me y’all the next chapter is gonna be so cute just wait 😤.


	3. Chapter 3

Two weeks fly by and Hange has noticed that Levi was becoming accustomed to his new pampered lifestyle. He had gotten used to her daily presence, but she wouldn’t say that he trusted her yet. He would still be wary around her, side eyeing her and keeping a comfortable distance between him when she would read to him or when they would do his daily physical therapy exercises. Or even when she would conversate with him, though she would do the most talking. The only time he would allow her to touch him was when she would check his wounds and examine him. She figured it would take a while to gain his trust but she was willing to be patient and work with him through every angle.

She grinned to herself as she sipped her cold brew, simultaneously pulling in to the driveway of the rehabilitation center. It was Monday morning and Hange was extra excited about going into work today. She noticed that Levi was very enraptured with the books that had illustrations in them, so she spent the weekend digging through her old books from when she was a child. She kept them in a box in her attic and forgot about them until now, she picked a few that she thought he would enjoy. It would make it easier for her to teach him to read with the lower level type of books.

“Good morning, Nifa!” She greeted the girl at the front desk as she walked in through the main building. Nifa smiled and greeted her with a less enthusiastic good morning.

“Did you sleep well?” Hange asks her as she punches in her card to clock in. Nifa nods, placing her cheek against the palm of her hand.

“Ah, yes I did, thank you. How’s the fish boy?”

Hange chuckles at the nickname and adjusts the strap of her handbag. “Levi? He’s doing okay, his injuries are healing nicely. His tail is a whole different story though.” She explains to Nifa somberly, girl grimaces. “I’m going to attempt to teach him how to read though.” 

Nifa raises an eyebrow, “oh really? That’s interesting.” Hange nods and pats the bag that held the books she brought from home. “Brought him some picture books, they seem to be his favorite.” 

“That’s cute.” Nifa says with a smile.

“Yeah, I’ll see you later okay?” Hange turns to walk to the elevator. “Take it easy Zoe!” Nifa calms as the elevator doors ding open. Hange waves at her and then steps inside, pressing the button for the second floor. When she reaches the second floor she steps out, waving to a few more staff members who pass by. She turns left into a walkway that connects to the research building. She almost runs into Nanaba who walks out of the laboratory.

“Hange, hi you’re not late.” Her Bestfriend chides at her. Hange hugs her and giggles, “Morning Nanabanana!” 

Nanaba groans and detaches herself from Hange. “I have some samples to deliver, buuut you will have lunch with me right?” 

“Of course.” Hange reassures her and Nanaba winks at her before walking away from her. Hange makes her way into her office and changes into her wet gear. She meets her assistant Moblit at an enclosure that belonged to her other charges, two juvenile Caribbean reef sharks. She named the larger one Sawney and the smaller one Bean, and them along with Levi were among her most precious patients.

“Morning Moblit!” She greets him with a warm smile, he smiles and nods at her from his kneeled position. 

“Morning Dr.Hange, just finished registering their water temp, I’m gonna take a sample back to the lab.” He says gesturing to the hydroflask in his hand. Hange nods and kneels down, and dips her hand into the tank. Bean clumsily swims out towards her, nose bumping against her palm. The poor shark was born blind and his brother sawney had a bent dorsal fun from a boating accident a while back, the two were inseparable since birth.

“Have they eaten?” Hange asks him while petting Beans snout.

“Yes, I gave them some squid with their vitamins, sawney kept trying to eat Beans portion though.”

Hange shook her head at that, “Seriously Sawney? I though we were passed that.” The bigger shark payed her no mind, just swam away from her to sulk in a corner. Hange chuckles and stands, Moblit hands her his empty bucket.

“I’ll go feed Levi then.” She tells him and he nods and also stands, shoving the hydroflask in his kit.

Hange makes her way over to the observation deck that overlooks Levi’s enclosure, bucket of fresh sardines in one hand, medkit in the other and her handbag slung over her shoulder. Levi is already awake when she enters the compound. He’s sitting at the edge of the water and leaning against the rocks, half of his tail in the water. 

“Good morning my beautiful Leviathan!” She greets the mer in a cheery tone. He doesn’t even acknowledge her presence, just glares up at the sky. 

“Ah, you’re in a mood today.” She jokes, setting down the bucket and medkit. He directs his gaze towards her, steel eyes blank, and says nothing.

“I come bearing gifts.” She chides, patting her handbag. Levi’s eyes turn curious and he sits up from his position. Hange pushes the sardines towards him.

“Breakfast first.”

He snatches the bucket and devours the fish with gusto. Hange sits next to him, making sure to leave a comfortable distance between them. She pulls out the books from her bag and places them between them. Levi looks up from the empty bucket and at the books and then at her.

“More books?” He asks with a puzzled expression. Hange nods with a smile, taking one and showing it to him, he grabs it.

“These were from when I was a kid, I thought that we could start with something easy for you.” Hange explains to him, gesturing to the the illustrated books. Levi pauses.

“For...me?” 

Hange nods. “ I’m gonna teach you how to read.” She answers with a goofy grin that made something flip inside him. He frowns.

“Why?”

“Why not, silly?”

Levi looked down at the book in his hands, the cover had a picture of a cartoon fish with colorful, sparkly scales. The corners of his eyes burned a little and he blinked a couple of times, vision blurring. Hange notices his distress, quickly jumping to attention she places a comforting hand of his shoulder.

“Oh, we don’t have to-”

He flinches violently, snapping his head towards her in alarm. Hange wrenches her hand back and apologizes. But then he surprises her by opening the book in his hands and looking up at her expectantly.

Hange blinks.

“Well?” The mer says, gesturing towards the book with his chin.

“R-right!” Hange stammers before shuffling closer to him.

She spends nearly all morning going through the ins and outs of the alphabet. Annunciating vowels and consonants, teaching him about the multiple sounds letters make when they are grouped up to make words. She reads the book with him slowly, allowing him to take his time with each letter and picture. The book was called the rainbow fish. It was about a beautiful fish with rainbow scales, he was the most beautiful fish in the sea. When a another little fish asked the rainbow fish to share one of his scales with him he refused, this caused all of the other fish to leave him. He was confused as to why they left him alone so he went to speak with a wise octopus for some advice. The octopus tells him that he should give his scales away and he agrees reluctantly. One by one he gives them away to every fish who asked him, until he only had one left. In the end he wasn’t as beautiful as before but he had so many friends know, he was now the happiest fish in the sea.

“That was shit.” Levi pouts as Hange closes the book.

“Oh? How come?” She asks him with an amused expression. He sits back against the rocks and crosses his scaly arms against his toned chest and frowns.

“That fish is stupid, why would he give away his scales to creatures he doesn’t even know? He looks like shit now.” 

Hange laughs, a long breathy laugh brown eyes crinkle behind her glasses. Levi swallows.

“Well I think it’s a metaphor about making friends” She says to him and when he raises an eyebrow, she further elaborates. “He was the most beautiful fish in the beginning but the other fish didn’t want to be around him because of his selfish attitude. The giving away of his scales represents the partaking of friendship i think, and yea maybe he wasn’t ‘beautiful’ in the end but he didn’t care because he was happy.” She finished, giving Levi a bright smile that made him want to jump back into the water from how warm it made him.

“This one was always one of my favorites growing up.” Hange’s voice broke him out of his stupor. She strokes the cover of it gently, her smile turning a bit sad. “I never really had any friends growing up.”

Levi swallows hard, unsure of what to do to console the human that was in charge of his care. 

Then he surprises himself.

“What am I then sea scum?” He says, instantly regretting those words when Hange stared at him in bewilderment. He looked away from her when he saw her mouth transform into a wide grin.

“Are you saying that you want to be friends? Eh Mr.grumpy fish?” Hange chided at him, leaning towards him. His cheeks burned.

“I-I didn’t say that, shitty glasses!” He glared at her and she burst out laughing. He growled and all but hauled himself off of the rocks and into the water, wincing from straining his injured tail. 

“Forget it.” He said, head poking out as he glared at the space beside her.

“It’s okay, I know what you meant.” She winked at him and he narrowed his grey eyes at her and disappeared into the water. Hange chuckles to herself and checks her watch.

Oh crap.

She was late for lunch with Nanaba. Quickly grabbing her things, making sure to leave the books for Levi, she all but ran all the way to the cafeteria that was in the main building. Nanaba is already sitting at their usual table, Mike, Petra, Oluo, Moblit and Erwin were also there.

“Hi everyone!” She greets them, sliding in between Nanaba and Petra, the latter offering her a warm smile. 

“Oh there she is, did you get your foot stuck in Sawney and Bean’s filter again?” Nanaba teases her, shoveling a forkfull of greens into her mouth.

“Sorry I got caught up with Levi, and I thought we agreed never to speak of that day ever again.” Hange jokes back at her and steals a cherry tomato from her tray and popping it in her mouth. She hums when the tart fruit bursts in her mouth.

“Oh how is he doing?” Oluo asks her as Petra tries to fend him off from stealing her fries.

“He’s doing well I think, his injuries healed nicely, save for his tail. He’s struggling to adjust with the lack of balance in the water, I’ve noticed that it still hurts for him when we work on his physical therapy. Although he still refuses to let me touch him throughout the exercises, he ends up straining himself.” She explains to them after swallowing.

“Poor thing sounds traumatized.” Says Petra And Hange hums solemnly.

“I sure would like to properly introduce myself, I feel like our first interaction was a bit harsh.” Moblit chimes in, the others nodding in agreement.

Hange nods at his statement, “I do want him to be exposed to more people, so he can learn from more human interaction. But I also don’t want to scare him.”

“You’ll have a good opportunity this week,” Erwin chimes in, munching on his bag of chips. “it’s recruitment week.”

“Recrui-OH! Yeah, I totally forgot about that!” Hange smacks herself on the forehead.

Of course, it was already June.

Every time summer rolls around, the rehabilitation center partners up with local summer camps to form recruitment week. Recruitment week is a program where they give kids who are in highscool an opportunity to intern at the Center, which also goes towards their community service 

Nanaba squealed with excitement, “ I love recruitment week, we get to meet new bright, young faces that will be serving us for the rest of the year!” She finishes of by clasping her her hands and placing them under her chin as a devious grin forms on her face.

Erwin sighs, “Nan, no those kids will not be your slaves, you scared off half of the last ones from the year before.”

“Aw but it’s just grunt work.” She pouted at her boss, he just shakes his head in dismay. Hange giggles to her self, stealing another tomato.

“Ah, the smell of springful youth and prepubescent hormones.” Whispers Mike from his sandwich, chewing slowly, eyes distant, as if he was looking through the past. 

Erwin gives him a ‘what the fuck?’ face, gets up, grabs his tray and and walks away with a mournful expression.

Hange, Nanaba And Olou all burst out laughing, Olou ends up biting his tongue and cries out in pain. Petra grins around the fry in her mouth.

Hange chews thoughtfully, smile still plastered on her face. 

Sawney and Bean are definitely going to love interacting with the kids.

She just hoped Levi would be up for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WoOoOoOo! There you go, Chapter three! I loved writing the funny interactions between Erwin and his subordinates 😂 I think I wanna add some ships that are other than LeviHan in this fic, lmk what ships you guys want to see🧐


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay 😕 just trying to straighten things out irl, forgive me 💕

Recruitment day came on Wednesday, and everyone was excited to meet kids. Hange and Petra had helped Nifa decorate the lobby in the main entrance in time for their welcome, complete with a sign that said ‘welcome recruits!” Nanaba put out name tag stickers and little goodie bags for the kids, eager to meet the new interns or servants as she liked to cal them under her breath. Much to Erwin’s displeasure.

Hange was in the middle of working Levi through his exercises. He was in the water, back against the rocks. He lifted his tail up above the water and held it there for a few seconds before dropping back down, exhaling profusely. He did this multiple times until Hange stopped him at the three minute mark. This exercise kept his tail flexible enough to make up for his missing tail fin.

“Good job, Levi.” Hange praises him and squats down next to him. He grimaces in pain slightly and sinks into the water, head tilting back and pants softly. 

“Tomorrow we do weights.” She tells him and he groans and glares at her.

“Are you trying to kill me you shitty human?” He whines, eyebrows pinching, and she giggles.

“Nah just trying to help you get stronger.” Levi huffs, looking up at the parted clouds in the sky.

Hange takes a moment to examine him closer. She looks at his facial features as he stares up at the sky above him, his gaze has gone soft, almost unguarded. His steel eyes are half lidded, full fluttery lashes brush against his pale cheeks as he blinks. Thin eyebrows are relaxed, matching dark, silky looking hair flutters against his pointed ears. Hange blinks slowly, her eyes remain glued to him unable to look away.

‘He’s a very good looking specimen.’ She thinks.

What? Hange double takes.

WHAT?!

Before Hange can even comprehend what just happened, Levi swivels his head to meet her gaze and she freezes, cheeks bursting into flames. Levi raises an eyebrow at her and opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by her phone chiming from her bag. Hange praises the whatever power that was above the as she practically launches herself away from the mermyd and rummages in her bag. 

It was Moblit who sent her a message that the recruits have arrived. She jumps in excitement, causing Levi to give her a weirded out look.

“Ah, Levi!” She yells at him, twirling around to look at him.

“What is it shitty glasses, you’re freaking me out.” He chides at her.

“We have some newcomers coming to the center, kids actually. They’re going to be volunteering here for the rest of the year.” She explains to him, her big smile never wavering.

Levi gives a her blank stare, not understanding a word that came out of her big mouth.

Hange scratches her head, “basically these kids are going to be helping us with our work. They learn about this place as they go, and we help them find opportunities for their future.”

Levi blinks, children? Human children? He internally shudders.

“As long as they don’t place their filthy hands on me or the water I don’t care.” He drawls in a monotone voice. Hange tilts her head at him curiously.

“It’s okay for them to meet you?” She asks him slowly. He nods, making her smile so bright it almost blinds the mer.

Hange leaves him to his own devices and heads to the main building in a frenzy. When she makes her way into the lobby Nanaba and Mike are already greeting the kids. Hange stops to take them in. There are seven of them, eyes wide as the juveniles look around the main lobby. Hange can feel their excitement raidiating off of them in waves.

Hange worms her way next to Nanaba near the front desk, Erwin is there too His voice booming as he introduces himself. When he catches sight of her he gestures for her to come foward, she happily obeys and walks infront of the young teens. 

“This is Dr. Hange Zoë, She is the head of our research and rehabilitation department.” He tells them and Hange gives them a huge wave and her best grin.

“Hello everyone, I’m so glad you chose to volunteer with us, we’re going to have lots of fun and learn so many new things!” Hange’s energy is ecstatic.

“She will be showing you a tour first, please make sure to write your names on a name tag. We’ll have ID’s ready for you by next week”. Erwin finishes with a clap of his large hands. The kids all began to murmur in excitement with each other as Petra handed them each a blank name tag and a marker.

Once all the kids had their name tags, Hange raised her arm and pointed towards the elevator.

“Alright everyone! Single file into the elevator, the tour has commenced!” Hange, Nanaba and Mike showed them the their way around the main building before making their way to the medical wing.

“While you guys won’t be dealing with a lot of the patchwork, you will be assisting with things like helping to transport patients in and out of their enclosures when medical assistance is needed.” Hange explained to them, stopping near one of the medical rooms.

“Who knows? Maybe Dr.Petra will give you an opportunity to sit in as well.” Hange says, giving Nanaba a sly grin, who responds with an equally devious expression.

One of the teens raises their hand, it was a boy with straight blonde hair that almost reached his shoulders. He had bright, ocean blue eyes that shined curiously underneath his bangs.

“Yes? Er-” Hange craned her neck to read the name off of his name tag. “Armin!”

The boy smiled shyly and nodded before asking, “eh-um, I read on your website that you guys take in a broad range of species that are mostly aquatic and that you specialize in the more unique err-specimens.” The boy behind him groaned. His short hair had an ash blondish almost light brown color to it.

“Really Armin, you can’t even wait until after the tour for questions?” 

The girl next to him socked him on his shoulder with her tiny fist. She too was blonde like Armin, hers was a little longer and tied in a loose ponytail over her shoulder. She was the smallest of the group but it seemed that she packed a punch. The boy rubbed his shoulder and was about to yell at her bofore the boy on the other side of the girl gave him a murderous glare. He had shaggy brown hair and piercing teal eyes.

“Shut up Jean.” The boy tells him and the the other boy-Jean-attempts to grab at the teal eyed boy. He stops in his tracks when he meets the steely glare of another girl who stood on the other side of the teal eyed boy.

“Touch Eren and you’re going to be single for the rest of the summer.” The girl’s voice almost sounded sinister. She was asian, with short dark hair that ended just below her ears. A long fringe fell over her face just between her grey colored eyes. “I wasn’t even gonna do anything Mikasa, gosh.” Jean said and crossed his arms in an angry pout.

Hange laughed, “It’s alright, I’ll answer any questions that you guys have throughout the tour.” She turns to Armin, who perks up instantly.

“You’re definitely right, we do specialize in the more special cases and species.” They’re moving towards the other side of the campus now, where the enclosures are.

“Most of our patients indeed are the usual specimens like dolphins seas turtles and sharks, ranging from the more endangered to the more common.” She stopped near the gate of the patient area, there was a large sign that read ‘Authorized personnel only’ in front of it.

As they made their way through the area the kids ogled at the various enclosures that they passed. Mike introduced them to Hans, a 50 year old Hawksbill sea turtle. He was brought to them two years ago with a missing flipper and a fractured shell. The teens were in awe when Nanaba introduced the to Winnie, a vampire squid aka Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Nanaba had found her when she was a little polyp in some sketchy ‘exotic’ pet store. She was in terrible condition, the owner kept her in a cramped tank that was never cleaned. So Nanaba bought her and brought her in and they’ve had her in their care ever since.

Hange then leads them to Sawney and Bean’s enclosure. The two reef sharks were very curious and immediately taken a liking to the new recruits. Hange was not surprised in the slightest, she let the kids feed them a couple of baby squids.

They stop at enclosure that was built underground, Hange turns towards the group of unsuspecting teenagers and grins.

“You guys are going to love the next few patients.” 

Mike opens the heavy steel door of the enclosure’s entrance that leads to some stairs. Hange leads the group inside, the space is huge, the walls weren’t walls they were giant tanks that connected into one big watery enclosure above ground.

One of the teens presses her face against the side of the glass. It’s a girl with hair as brown as Hange’s that’s tied up into a high ponytail and long bangs that framed her face. 

“There isn’t anything in here.” She says, eyes scanning through the deep blue water. Before anyone can retort, a large figure swims pass them. All the kids jump and gasp at the looming figure.

The creature was very large. The head resembled that of a horse, it’s tail was long and adorned with flowy skirt like fins. It had two front webbed ‘legs’ and a beautiful blue and green color pattern across its entire body. The group of kids were left with their mouths hanging open at the sight.

“Meet June, she is a Scottish water horse.” Said hange.

“Otherwise known as a Kelpie. She’s a total sweetheart, pretty old in age but loves to play fetch with pool toys.” Hange giggles as June swims closer to the group and snorts at them, creating little bubbles in the water. The kids became more enraptured with June, they all crowded near her as she curiously eyed them while swimming around in happy movements.

Hange explained to them that she was the subject of an illegal traveling circus, they had her as some kind of exhibit. When they were shut down she was brought here because she had spent her entire life in captivity and knew nothing about surviving alone in the wild. Kelpies usually stick with their mothers for a while before going off on their own, June never got to experience that.

“Hey, she kind of looks like Jean.” A boy with a buzz cut teased and everyone in their group except Jean burst out in a fit of giggles. Jean grabbed the boy and pressed his knuckles against his head.

“Say that shit agin Connie.” 

He only laughed as Jean rubbed his knuckles against his head.

As the group made their way through the entire campus Hange would answer their questions with gusto. Sasha, the girl with the brown ponytail, asked about lunchtime and Hange told them that she had one more patient to introduce to them before lunch.

As they approach Levi’s enclosure Hange stops and turns to them. 

“Our next stop is another special, have any of you heard of the ‘Homo Aquatis Melusine’? 

The blonde haired girl perked up and shot her hand up. Hange took a peek at her name tag.

“Historia!” 

Historia’s cheeks colored a little before answering in a small voice, “you mean Mermaids?”

Hange nodded with a smile. “Ah yes indeed, mermaids, merfolk, water people, Triton’s children. We’ve created many names for them, yet we still have very little knowledge about them. Mermyds are extremely stubborn and highly unpredictable, so I ask you to please be mindful. This one has been through trauma and is making a difficult recovery. This is the first Mer to be in our facility so we are still learning the ropes around caring for him.”

The teens are practically vibrating with pent up curiosity, hange grinned a little. 

“No way, you mean we’re actually going to be working with a Mermyd?” Eren practically yelled, Hange Cringed.

“Yes and no, he is a difficult case. I will have at least one of you assisting me once in a while so he won’t be too overwhelmed.” She responds

“I read that they can be dangerous.” Said Armin, Hannge looks at him curiously. While she was sure that Levi was definitely a force when he was in the wild, she wouldn’t say that he’s dangerous now that he’s in rehabilitation.

Hange hums, “Yes they are. Like any other wild creature, including us, they have the tendency to react violently when it comes to difficult situations. 

She claps her hands together, “Now, I’m going to have you guys change into wetsuits, just as a precaution.”

As Nanaba and Mike hand out suits to the kids and direct them to the bathrooms, Hange makes her way into Levi’s enclosure.

She smiles when she notices that he is in his hammock reading-er- attempting to read one of the books she left him. The mer squints at the letters in front of him, small lips attempting to pronounce each word.

“The cat in the hat, that’s a classic.”

He looks up at her and squints.

“What do you want?”

Hange pouts at him, “I’m giving the new volunteers a tour, you’re up.”

Levi freezes, his usually guarded expression cracks a little. Hange puts up her hands.

“They’re not going to be in here, they’ll be up there.” Hange says to him while pointing at the observation deck above the water. He visibly relaxes. Hange bends down to examine his tail, carefully telling her fingers over the bandage.

“How’s it feel?” She asks him softly, looking up at him. Levi stares back at her, his tail twitches slightly under her touch but he does no pull away this time. 

“It’s better, doesn’t hurt as much like before, but it’s uncomfortable to swim with.”

Hange hums and unconsciously strokes the scales of an uninjured area of his tail. Levi’s breath hitches slightly and he shivers making Hange snatch her hand back.

“I’m sorry did I hurt you?” She apologizes but Levi shakes his head, cheeks redden slightly. Hange let’s out a sigh of relief.

“Good, hehe” she stands and checks her watch, “Okay the kids should be finished changing by now.”

Levi buries his face back into his book. Hange scoffs and moves the book away from his face. He glares at her.

“Hey, don’t be a pouty fishy, human interaction will be good for you.”

The Mer rolls his eyes.

“Are a bunch of snotty human brats supposed to magically heal me?” He says before crossing his arms against his naked chest.

“No, but it will make it easier. They’re nice kids.” 

Levi looks back her, she giving him a small sad smile. Her chocolate eyes gaze at him warmly and it stirs something up inside him . He feels hot all over again, he sighs.

“Alright, But if anyone one of them even sticks a finger inside the water I won’t hesitate to bite it off of them.”

Hange laughs one of her bubbly and breathy laughs that make her eyed crinkle behind her glasses and he shoulder shake.

And the Mermyd could only stare at the goofy four eyed human, as she continued to cause whatever was happening inside his chest to flutter rapidly against his will.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the lack of updating 😭 my inspiration for this series has been wavering but I’m pushing through so bear with me guys. 😤🙏

Levi watches them from below the observation deck, he eyes the group of kids who are observing him with wide eyed expressions as Hange filled them in with information. From what he can hear she’s telling them about how he got here. 

He frowns.

Hange looks back at him and gives him a supportive smile, he pretends to look away.

“Mermyds can actually speak. From what I’ve gathered, Levi must have come from clear waters. His speech is in fluent English.” Hange tells them.

Sasha leans against the railing of the observation deck before calling out to the mer, “Hello mister mermaid, I’m Sasha would you like a treat?”

Levi ignores the girl and picks at his sharp nails.

“Oi! Don’t ignore us you damn guppy!” Eren yells from beside her.

Levi snaps his head towards the teal eyed boy and narrows his glare at him, gills flaring in annoyance.

“Get in here and say that again you bratty human infant!” 

Hange sighs, “that’s enough of that, Levi please be civil.”

He just crosses his arms and growls underneath his breath.

Hange let’s the teens introduce themselves to the mermyd who gave them all an indifferent look. 

“What happened to your tail?” Armin asks him timidly.

Levi’s glare turns into a sour scowl, the blonde teen flinches at the sight.

“None of your concern.” The mermyd growls and slides into the water, letting only his head bob above the surface.

He looks to Hange and gives her a look that says, ‘I’m done now’ and dives underneath.

“Don’t worry guys, he’ll warm up eventually hehe.” Hange tells them with a nervous laugh 

It wouldn’t be an easy feat, but Hange was never one to give up easily.

The next day Hange makes it to work later than usual. Her day had begun a little rough, she overslept past her alarm, accidentally cracked her phone screen and almost got into a car accident when she spilled her cold brew all over the drivers seat. 

Yes, today wasn’t one of her best days but it would take a lot more to truly dampen her mood.

Hange makes it to work thirty minutes late, clothes wrinkled and coffee stained, greasy hair pulled up into a haphazard ponytail and her signature wide grin slapped onto her face.

She changes into her wet gear and meets Erwin and Moblit by Sawney and Bean’s enclosure.

“Wonderful of you to join us Hange.” Erwin greets her, raising an eyebrow at her messier than usual hairstyle. Moblit notices and grimaces slightly.

Hange presses her hands together in an apologetic like gesture, “I’m so sorry Erwin I overslept past my alarm.”

“Pulled another all nighter Dr.?” Moblit asks her already knowing the answer.

Hange grins sheepishly.

“That’s alright Hange, the kids just arrived. Yeager, Ackerman and Arlert are with you today, Kirstein and springer are with Mike and Oluo and Reiss and Braus are with Petra and Nanaba.” Erwin fills her in and Hange immediately perks up.

He lifts a hand up before she can speak, “please be careful with them around Levi, I don’t need a lawsuit in my hands.”

Hange grins and throws an arm over the taller mans shoulders. 

“Don’t you worry about a thing, I’ll take good care of the kids.”

Erwin just gives her a dead stare and dismisses himself to his office.

Hange goes over her work routine with the kids. She shows them how to punch in and where to report everyday. She shows them goes over all of her patient’s personal diets and assigns one to each teen.

“You guys will rotate between patients under my supervision of course.” Hange tells the teens who are already in their own wet gear.

It went like this; for breakfast Armin will be feeding June, the kelpie. Mikasa would be feeding Sawney and Bean, and Eren would be feeding Levi with Hange. For lunch the my rotated to Armin feeding Levi, Mikasa feeding June and Eren feeding Sawney and Bean. And finally for dinner time it rotated to Eren feeding June, Armin feeding Sawney and Bean and Mika’s feeding Levi.

June appreciated Armind efforts in preparing her breakfast, her favorite being a large mixture of wild Krill and chunks of bluefin tuna. She even went as far as to let the shy boy pet her horselike snout. The blonde complied with equal enthusiasm, ocean eyes sparkling in awe as he stroked the water horse.

Sawney and Bean were equally as great fun for the breakfast Mikasa helped prepare for them. Hange showed her how to prepare the squid and octopus for them as well as the correct portion of vitamins that they needed. Bean allowed the girl to rub his snout after he ate, Sawney of course being the shark with the most attitude just thanked her with a dismissive thrash of his tail fin as he retreated from his usual brooding spot.

Levi was much less enthusiastic about having one of the kids prepare and feed him his breakfast, much less it being Eren. He ate his food regardless, all the whole glaring intently at the poor boy who fidgeted nervously where he stood.

“Not so mouthy when you’re in here eh brat?” Levi chided him with a scary glint in his eyes. 

Hange rolled her eyes and stood from where she was collecting samples of the water. 

“Don’t be scared of him Eren, he only acts like a pufferfish.” Hange reassured the boy while giving Levi a teasing grin.

Levi’s eye twitched.

“You shitty human. If I had those two driftwood looking things you call feet, I would shove one so far up your blowhole you’d be coughing it up for a week.”

That made Hange burst out laughing. She clutched her stomach and wheezed so hard that tears formed in her eyes.

“He-*wheeze*-called it-*wheeze*-a blowhole!”

Eren could barely contain his own laughter, a snort escaped through his nose and the teal eyed teen quickly slapped a hand over his mouth when Levi shot him a murderous glare.

Once Hange calmed down she gave Eren and Armin the task of helping Moblit cleaning the filter of Sawney and Bean’s enclosure and as well as cleaning Levi’s enclosure. She had Mikasa help her take the samples to the lab and she showed the girl the ropes around the lab.

“We have water monitors set up in June and Sawney and bean’s enclosures and we’re working on setting one up in Levi’s.” Hange tells her and gestures to the testing kit in front her. “But I always like to be safe so I also lab test the water.” 

Mikasa payed close attention as Hange taught her how to set up the kit and test the samples properly. She also showed her the cleanup system and the rules of the lab.

Once it hit two PM it was Armin’s turn to feed Levi his lunch. He was much more timid around the mermyd, fidgeting every time Levi glares at him.

“I’m not going to eat you brat, so stop looking so scared.” Levi tells him sternly as he rips into a juicy sardine. “Your friend though, he might lose a leg or two.”

Armin blinked.

“Oh ah, E-Eren?” He asks.

Levi nods and swallows, “That mollusk has a sly mouth.”

Armin grins a little and chuckles, “He can be a little abrasive sometimes but he usually means well, he is my best friend and all.”

Levi stays silent, eating his lunch in contemplation. He ignores Armin as the teen sits two feet away from him, looking as if he wanted to ask him something. Levi frowns.

Why the hell is he still here?

Levi looks up at the blonde haired boy with a look that said, ‘the hell do you want?’

Armin fidgeted before asking, “W-What was it like for you out there, underneath the ocean I mean?”

Levi paused in mid bite. Why the hell did this kid want to know about his shitty life under the cold depths of the sea? To be honest with himself it wasn’t much living, more like surviving. He didn’t remember much of his early years as a young fry, just some flashes of what he assumed to be his mother holding him while humming some unrecognizable tune. His more prominent memories was when he was forced to be a part of a small pod of other mermyds. He was constantly roughed up by the other members, the treated him like he was an outsider. They made him scavenge and hunt for themselves, and when they would encounter another pod of mermyds, which was rare, they would attack them. And if Levi would refused to take part they would attack him and make him starve to put him in his place. The leader who they called Kenny, taught him most of what he knew about survival in the waters, kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. Soon Levi broke ties with the pod and went solo, but his departure did not go without blood.

Armin was still waiting for him to answer, wringing his hands together in nervousness. Levi squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head softly, bringing his thought back to the present.

“Not as amazing as you’d think, let’s just say I barely survived.” Levi responds to his questions, voice a little scratchy.

Armin digested Levi’s response, his blonde brows furrowing in thought.

“Whoever did that to you,” He says, gesturing towards his injured tail with his chin. “Did they do it on purpose?”

Levi’s eyes glazed over, small fragments of fogged up memories flashed behind them. He couldn’t piece them together entirely, it made his chest ache. He should remember, especially since-

His thoughts halted. 

“Where’s Hange?” Levi asks him flatly, mask not faltering. He needed someone he could trust.

That thought made him pause slightly, so he trusted that shitty doctor now?

“Ah she’s assisting Moblit and Eren with the sharks.” Armin tells him, breaking him away from his thoughts once again.

Levi wrinkled his nose when Armin mentioned sharks.

The teen opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Hange who bounded down from the observation deck.

“Sorry I left you guys alone poor Eren got his foot caught in Sawney and Beans filter hehe, he’s just as clumsy as me.” She announces as she approached them.

“It’s okay Dr. Hange,” Armin reassures her, “Mister Levi was well behaved.”

Hange places her hands on her hips and chuckled, “oh-ho, you’ve been upgraded to a higher title know mister Levi sir.” She teases with a mock salute.

The mer rolls his eyes and shoves the empty bucket towards Armin who grabs it and stand up.

“I should probably check on Eren to see if he’s alright.” Armin says to Hange with a small smile. She pats him on the back and nods, “Good idea they’re at the common room near the cafeteria in the main building.” 

Once they were alone Hange sets down the bag that she had been holding and plops herself next to it.

“I need to check your vitals and I also will need a blood sample.” She briefs him with a huge grin. Levi ignores the way her grin makes his pulse quicken and narrows his steel colored eyes at her.

“You’re gonna stick me with that thing again aren’t you?” 

Hange cringes before nodding, “yea sorry but it will be just as quick as the last time.”

“Let me guess you want me to piss in that cup thing again?”

Hange nods and laughs heartily when Levi’s fave forms into a grumpy pout, gills puffing our at his neck.

“What the hell are you laughing at shitty glasses?” He grinds out as she continues to giggle as she rifles through her bag, pulling out a stethoscope.

“You’re cute when you pout.” It slips out before she can catch herself.

Levi’s eyes widen as his cheeks turn bright pink. Hange snaps her head up to looks at him and she can hardly contain herself when she sees his embarrassed expression.

“C-cute?! The hell are you saying you dumb human, is all that pollution finally gotten inside your stupid head?!”

Hange laughs again and ruffles his dark hair, the mer slaps her hand away in response.

The tips of his ears still burn at what she said to him as she works on him. She takes his temperature and blood pressure after checking heart rate, surprised to find that it was racing slightly.

Levi avoided eye contact, what the hell was this woman doing to him. Every little thing she did, her big ass toothy smiles, cheeky grins and all those annoying ass noises made him feel all weird inside. It made him want her to be around him more than she already was. 

He couldnt believe he was saying it but be actually wanted that shitty humans company.

Once hange finished she gathered all of her materials and samples and stood up.

“Oi,” Levi says to her before she headed out, rubbing the arm where she drew blood from. “We’re still reading today right?”

A goofy smile forms on her face, “Of course Levi, after dinner though, I’ll be here all night.” She tells him before winking and heading out of his enclosure.

Dinnertime rolls around at six, and Hange trusted that Mikasa could handle Levi alone for a while because she had to help Mike with a turtle hatching emergency.

Mikasa didn’t mind she did her job and brought the mermyd his dinner. Levi gave the girl a halfhearted thanks before digging into the bucket only surprised to find that not only there was his usual fresh catch of sardines but also a couple of crawfish mixed in as well. He gave Mikasa a questioning look.

“Hange said it was her treat, though you could use some variety in your diet.” The teen mumbles.

Levi huffs and tucks into his food graciously, he could feel the brat’s eyes on him as he ate.

“You have a pretty tail.” She says bluntly.

It catches him off guard and he gives her an incredulous stare.

“..it’s missing a fin, the color also makes it look shittier so I don’t know what you’re referring to as ‘pretty’.” 

Levi was never fond of the color of his tail, it was an ugly grey black transition, it made him look scary unlike other mermyds he had seen.

Mikasa shrugs and sits down near the waters edge, crisscrossing her legs.

He eats in silence agiain while Mikasa just stares into the water, deep in her own thoughts.

“I used to be really obsessed with mermyds when I was little, it was something that me and my mother shared together.”

That made the mer sigh internally.

What was it with these kids being so mouthy while he ate, Why couldn’t they just leave him in peace?! 

“ it’s what made me want to pursue a career in the marine biology.” Her tone was flat, robotic almost.

“It’s not ugly, just different and being different makes you pretty.” She continued, eyes shifting look at the mermyd. 

That sentence strikes a cord in him, a memory flashes before him. Bubbly giggles and watery smile engrained in them. His chest tightens as he swallows, it was getting hard to breathe.

“It’s just something she would say a lot.” Mikasa finishes before getting up and taking the empty bucket from him and leaves him to his own thoughts.

A few minutes go by while Levi just sits there breathing heavily.

The Memories were flashing quickly now, some broken and foggy and some clear as day. A hot day, cold darks waters, deep red blood swirling into sea space around him. They make the corners of his eyes burn.

Isabelle.

She had said something similar to him once

‘ your tail, it’s different, but that’s what makes it beautiful big bro!’

Isabelle, Farlan....fuck.

These stupid kids reminded him of them so much, the only real family he ever had.

The ones he lost along with his fin.

Fuck.

He was panting now, vision blurring with tears. The ache in his chest spread like a burning fire all over his body. The mer pressed his hands over his face and let out a heart wrenching sob.

He didn’t cry when it happened, he could barely react at the moment as he was being attacked himself. But now it finally hit him, like a boat against coral.

They’re gone and he couldn’t protect them like he promised.

Levi was hyperventilating now, curled into a fetal position as he sobbed uncontrollably unable to contain his emotions.

It all burned through his system.

He grabbed at his hair and screamed in rage and clawed at the ground beneath him as a heavy flow of tears continued to stream down his face.

“Levi, oh my god!”

Her voice made through the cloudy fog that was his head, his breath hitches and he let out a broken whine.

Hange was in her office when she was alerted by Moblit on Levi’s breakdown, he had been observing the live camera feed from the enclosures. Hange literally ran into his enclosure as soon as he told her.

She quickly kneeled by the broken mermyds side.

“Hey, hey Levi what’s happening, are you in pain? Can I touch you?”

At this point Levi didn’t care he just wanted the pain to stop, needed her to help him breathe again. He nodded.

As soon as she placed her hand on his quivering shoulder he let out another hard sob and curled up closer to Hange, sliding his head on her lap and gripping her shirt. His gills struggles to take in air as he choked on his own sobs.

Hanges arms hovered over the poor mermyd, he completely caught her off guard when he actually willingly touched her.

Her heart panged for him.

“It’s okay, it’s alright, I’m here, you’re safe nobody is going to hurt you anymore I promise.” She whispers to him in a soothing voice as she threads one hand into his surprisingly soft hat and the othe rubs his shuddering back.

“Breathe, Levi, remember to breathe in and out, slowly, everything is okay.”

His choking graduates back down to hyperventilating and then eventually slows down into weak shuddering sobs. His arms are now tightly holding on to her waist and his cheek was pressed against her stomach, tears soaking through her fishing shirt while Hange continues to bring him down.

“I c-couldn’t s-save them.” He tells her groggilly once the sobbing stopped but the tears still flowed.

Hange’s brows knit together. “Who?”

“Isabelle, F-Farlan, it’s all my fault.” His voice is raspy from all the sobbing and screaming. “They’re dead and it’s my fault, I-I-” He is cut off by another racking sob that vibrates through his entire body. Hange let’s him ride it out while she rubs his back and combs through his hair with her fingers.

Two minutes pass and the tears begin to slow down.

“Isabelle and Farlan, they were important to you?” Hange asks him quietly.

Levi nods and sniffles against her stomach and squeezed his eyes shut.

“They’re gone, along with my fin, I couldn’t save them.”

Hange sighs softly and rubs the tips of her fingers along the nape of his neck and he shudders.

“It’s not your fault Levi, you were in a too terrible condition to even swim yourself. Please don’t blame yourself, I’m sure you’re friends would understand and know that you did everything you could for them. Judging from how much you cared about them I’m sure they knew and if they could they would tell you that it’s okay, you’re alive. You survived and you’ll make them very proud by keeping their memories and the ones you shared with them alive with you.”

There was silence when she finally finished and she was worried that she may have said something wrong until Levi gripped her harder and completely let go of everything else that was left inside him.

He shuddered, quivered and shook, fresh hat tears poured from his normally steely eyes, leaving a river like stream in their wake. Hange held him as he sobbed, her heart squeezing uncontrollably at the sound of his low whines. She didn’t know why it hurt her so much to see the mermyd so broken like this. It almost made her angry as the feeling of wanting to protect him from everything came over herself.

They stayed like that for almost an hour until Levi was exhausted and was slipping in and out of consciousness.

The sun had already set and the cold night air blew softly against them.

Hange didn’t care, she continued to stroke his hair.

She made a promise to take care of him, and here she was doing just that and so much more.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6! This one is a doosie.

They next day Levi felt utterly embarrassed to say the least. How could he have allowed himself to let his guard down around that woman so easily? The answer would remain a complete mystery for now. 

While Levi acted extremely awkward around the doctor but she acted as if nothing has really changed. She greeted him with her usual overly cheery tone and gracious smile. She fed him his breakfast this morning since only Sasha and Historia were helping her today. She treated him no different from any other days, she chatted him up like usual while he ate, and pushed him to his limit during his physical therapy exercises.

The mermyd was absolutely dumbfounded.

Perhaps she was secretly wierded out by his unusual display of emotion, and was too put off to by him to say anything about it. 

Should he apologize?

This whole thing was too much for him.

Hange jumped in surprise when Levi slapped his deformed tail harshly into the water, spraying her in the face in the process.

“Hey! You did that on purpose.” She cried before sputtering the water out of her mouth and giving him a harmless glare.

Levi tried to give her his usual noncommittal bored glare but found it difficult to keep a straight face when he saw the state she was in. Her now wet bangs clinger to the sides of her cheeks, her glasses were spotted with water droplets and tilted awkwardly on her nose. She almost looked like a beached sea lion.

Levi snorted when she pouted at him.

“That just earned you two more laps.” She whined, pointing to the water around him. He just rolled his eyes, gills flaring in annoyance.

Once Levi completed said laps and Hange dried herself off it was then when Levi decided he’d confront her about what happened.

“Oi, shitty glasses.” The mer piped up at her.

She turned to face him from her position on the rocks in front of him, lowering the towel from her face and tilting her head to the side. That’s when Levi noticed that she didn’t have her glasses on, and her hair was down. He had to stop his jaw from almost hitting the sand below him as his voice got caught in the back of his throat.

Levi would definitely be lying to himself if he said that he didn’t find her extremely attractive at this moment.

Cheeks burning he quickly turned his head away, glaring at nothing in particular. Hange gives him a confused look before wiping her lenses and sliding them back on the bridge of her hooked nose.

“What is it Levi?” Hange asks him, attention fully directed towards the dark haired mermyd.

Levi glanced back at the woman, face now back to his usual bored expression.

“About last night..” he starts. “..that was..” he can feel his face heat up again with embarrassment again and looks down at his sharp nails.

Hange, noticing his frustration, scoots closer to him and brings her knees up to her chest. She folds her arms over them and rests her head above them.

“There’s no reason to be embarrassed Levi,” She tells him with a small smile. “We all have our moments...and it’s always good to have someone to help you get through them.”

Levi just stares at her with an unreadable expression, not knowing what to say.

“Anywaaays.” Hange drawls and stretches her arms above her head before getting up. “Sasha will be feeding you your lunch later, I have a few things to take care of, regarding a couple of sharks. Please be cooperative, Levi.” She finished with a pleading tone.

Levi rolled his eyes and drew back against the water. A painful jolt shot from his tail to his upper back, causing him to grunt in pain. Hange caught it Instantly and knelt back down to his side, just as he was steadying himself against a rocky edge.

“What hurts?” Hange asked him, worry etched all over her face.

Levi shook his head, to be honest he didn’t know. The pain was sharp and jarring, it made his body feel hot and ache all over.

“I don’t..” He panted as he attempted to drag his body out of the water, Hange quickly helped him by pulling him out by underneath his armpits and laying him flat on the sand.

“...i feel..hot.” He groaned as the pain began come in harsh waves, shooting up from the tip of his tail fin and blooming in his chest.

Falling onto her knees, she pressed the back of her hand against the of his forehead. It felt hot and clammy, Levi almost sighs at the feeling of her cool hand against his skin.

“You’re burning up!” Hange exclaimed as she pulled away, eyebrows pulled up in concern.

“Nggh..” the mer groaned again as the pain intensified, tail twitching and back arching off the ground.

“Do something..gah, shitty...ugh!” It was getting hard for him to breathe, his gills fluttered weakly as Levi curled into a ball. He clawed at his chest where the pain flared at an almost excruciating level.

Hange shot up to her feet and cursed under her breath, she was going to need help. Looking back down at the feverish Mermyd who was writhing on the ground she made a quick assessment on the symptoms he was showing before darting towards the enclosure’s entrance. She almost ran over Historia and Sasha who were waiting outside, chatting amiably with their wet gear.

“Dr. Hange, is everything okay?” Historia asked.

Hange shook her head before looking back worriedly into the enclosure.

“I need the two of you to look after him while I get some help. He needs to go to the med bay, radio me if he stops breathing!” She briefs them before dashing away. 

Both girls look at each other in alarm before darting into the enclosure.

Five minutes later Hange arrives with both Moblit and Mike, the two males dragging a stretcher and med kit with them. The brunette thanked the two teens after helping Moblit and Mike deposit Levi onto the stretcher. Hange noticed that he’s gotten noticeably paler during her absence and a thin layer of sweat clung to his body. He was shaking and shivering, mumbling incoherent words as he tossed and turned.

“You two stay with the others, they should be assisting Nanaba in the lab.” She ordered the girls who nodded and rushed out of the enclosure.

Hange followed Mike and Moblit as they quickly wheeled Levi to the Med bay. Once they got there Hange, with the help of Petrea, put Levi in an ice bath to help lower his burning temperature. 

Once they were able to bring the Mermyd’s temperature down to a level that they could work with, they transported him to one of the recovery rooms and hooked him up to an iv that had something for the pain. At this point he had fell into a deep unconsciousness.

“His vitals are returning to normal.” Petra mumbled as she scribbled onto Levi’s chart on her clipboard.

“That’s great,” Hange sighed as she watched the mer sleep, tail protruding underneath the covers and hanging over the edge of the bed limply. “I’m going to monitor him for a while, just until his fever breaks.”

Petra nods, orange hair bobbing along the sides of her hair delicately. The petite woman gazed at Levi with an expression of pity.

“Poor thing, he can’t seem to catch a break. What could’ve triggered his fever?”

Hange shook her head. “I’m not sure, it happened out of nowhere. He was completely fine before, I fed him his breakfast, he did great during his exercises. We were just talking when suddenly the pain started.”

“Hm..” Petra hummed thoughtfully. “I’ll see what I can find in the records.”

“That would be ideal yes.” Hange agreed. “I’ll do some research into the Mermyd’s health history. Won’t be much information but it wouldn’t help to try. Thank you, Petra.”

Petra smiled at the brunette before excusing herself out of the room.

Hange turned back to Levi, he still looked very pale and sweaty but at least he stopped shivering. The room was relatively silent around them, except for the sounds the machines he was hooked up to made.

Hange jumped when the radio on her hip crackled to life.

“Dr.Hange, report to my office.” It was Erwin.

She sighed before answering. “Got it. I’ll be there in a few.” She said before sparing one last glance at Levi and exiting the room.

The air around him felt cold an dry, but yet his lungs did not protest when his gills swallowed it greedily.

He shifted his limbs and paused, the surface below him did not feel like rough rocks or grainy sand. It wasn’t the thin roped of his hammock either, instead he felt soft, plush cloth underneath.

The mer slowly open his gray slate eyes only to flinch at the bright light above him. He sequeezed his eyes shut and turned his head before slowly opening them again, blinking blearily to adjust his eyesight to focus.

The room around him was painted white, glancing to right he spotted a window with the curtains drawn over it. The mer groaned as he rolled his head down to look at his left arm, only to find a weird clear tube like cord attached to it. He looked up to see that the tube-cord was attached to a pouch that hung on a metel pole next to the bed, it held some clear liquid that dropped down through the tube and into his arm. 

Levi flexed and stretched his body, he felt much better than before. His muscles were a little sore but the pain and heat from before were gone. He sat up slowly and attempted stretch his tail out but paused, something about it didn’t feel right.

With a clawed hand, the mer ripped off the covers off of his body and immediately froze in horror at the sight below him.

His tail was gone, replaced by two smooth and very human legs.

Panicking, he scrambled backwards, kicking the sheets off the bed in the process. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it felt so weird.

Levi’s heart raced as he reached out to touch his new limbs, there was some kind of clear slimy fluid that coated them. He grimaced and pulled his now slick hand away. 

This was all too much, he wanted his tail back. The mer threw his legs over to the side of the bed and ripped of the tube from his arm. He was going to find Hange and she was going to fix this. Yes, she would know what to do.

But first, he needed to use these damn flesh sticks they call legs.

He planted the bottom of his two new feet on the cold floor and shivered, suddenly aware that his humanlike body was completely bare. The mer looked down at the junction between his legs and his steel eyes widened at the gland that protruded from it. It was long and it felt heavy, Levi cocked his head and poked it. He gasped at the weird sensation, it was very sensitive. 

Levi shook his head before pushing himself off of the bed and immediately regretted it when both of his feet slipped out from underneath him, causing him to fall backwards onto the hard floor. He let out a yelp of pain when felt the back of his head smack painfully against the hard surface. Despite that, he clumsily scrambled onto his knees. The slimy fluid was making it hard for him to use his legs so he grabbed the bed sheets that were strewn on the floor and wiped his legs down.

Once he was satisfied with his work he chucked the sheets away from him and made an attempt to stand again. He stopped when something on the floor in front of the bed caught his eye. He crawled forward to get a better looked and reeled back when he realized what it was.

It was his tail. 

Or what used to be his tail, it was more like the skin of his tail. It lay crumpled in a puddle of what looked like to be the same clear fluid that was on his legs. Levi almost gagged at the sight.

The mer scooted backwards and away from it until his back hit the wall, using it to get leverage so he could finally stand upright on his feet.

His knees buckled underneath his weight but he still stayed upright. Slowly he mimicked how he would see the humans around them use their legs, putting one foot in front of the other Levi waddled like a toddler towards the door.

He attempted to push against it but it wouldn’t budge. He then looked down at the metal door knob before grabbing and yanking at it. The Mermyd almost felt stupid when his hand slipped and pushed the door knob down, causing the door to swing open and him to stumble out into the hallway.

Levi caught himself before he fell and leaned against one of the hallway walls. Looking around he notice how long the hallway stretched infront and behind him. 

The raven haired mer gulped before beginning to wobbly walk down the narrow path. He passed about five doors before turning right and stopping in front of another door. Levi went through it and was greeted by fresh outdoor air.

Below him where stairs that curled down to a walkway that led into the research building. He nervously looked down at the steps and then back through the door behind him. He had no idea where he was going or what he was going to do if someone were to cross paths with him. He just hoped that he’d find Hange before anybody found him.

Slowly but surely, the ravenette descended down the concrete steps. He flinched and hissed at the feeling of hot surface against his bare feet as he gripped one of the railings with both of his hands and climbed down the steps sideways, one foot at a time.

Once he’d gotten to the bottom of the stairs, Levi quickly darted through the entrance of the research building. There was a small amount of pride that welled up in his chest at the fact that he was getting good on his new legs.

The main area of the research building was large, it was almost like a lobby of sorts with a front desk just like the one in the main building but there was nobody behind it. There was an elevator to the right of the desk and one of the walls were made up of a huge aquarium tank. The blue light of the water shone through, catching Levi’s attention quickly.

They mermyd waddled up to the tank, bare feet padding against the floor, and pressed a hand against the glass. 

Inside the bottom of the tank were an array of beautiful oceanic plant life and coral. There were also dozens of saltwater fish that swam calmly in the water. He leaned closer to gaze into the tank when suddenly a dolphin with a large scar than ran across it’s left eye swam up to him, pressing its nose to the glass underneath Levi’s palm.

The ravenette jolted backwards in surprise before scowling at the animal. 

“Tch, what do you want?” 

The dolphin squeaked happily at him and twirled around before making a few clicking sounds.

The prick was laughing at him.

Then he looked down at himself.

Oh.

“Oi, like you can do better?”

The dolphin chirped at him in a teasing manner, making Levi roll his pale eyes in annoyance.

“I’m looking for a human woman,” the mer spoke. “She has messy hair and shitty glasses.”

The creature just chirped at him and did a small flip on the water.

“No I don’t want to play with you, shitty fish! Just tell me where she-”

He was interrupted by a loud ding behind him, and turned to see the doors of the elevator slowly open. The feeling of suddenly having to hide somewhere over took him and the mer scrambled to hide behind one of the walls near the entrance of the bathrooms before whoever was in the elevator could see him.

“..and I think we could get some of the kids to help with June’s transport to Rose.” A deep voice resonated through the lobby and Levi peeked his head around to see who it’s owner was.

It was a tall, familiar looking, dirty blonde man wearing a green a black windbreaker over his wetsuit. He was speaking to an equally as tall but bulkier blonde man who wore the same type of windbreaker tied around his waist. His own wetsuit was unzipped to reveal a gray talk top underneath.

“That should be fine, Mike. Have Olou help you out and make sure Petra checks June over before she’s put on the transport.”

“Yes, sir.” The dirty blonde, Mike, says before stopping in front of the entrance and turning his head over in the direction where Levi hid and sniffed the air.

The mer froze.

“What is it, Mike.” The other man asked, also looking to where Mike was.

He shook his head before pushing one of the doors open. “It’s nothing.”

His partner shrugged before following him out of the building, leaving the mermyd to sigh with relief in his hideout.

Hange sighed as she walked down from Erwin’s office and to the elevator, pressing the up bottom to get to the research lab.

She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for it to come up and quickly ducked inside once the doors open, pressing the button to the third floor and leaning heavily against the back wall in exhaustion.

She should be happy right now, Erwin had just informed them that June was to be transported to Ireland to be released in protected waters. Instead she was stuck worrying about Levi, right now she was headed to the lab to examine the samples that were taken from him.

The brunette pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose before sighing again as she exited the elevator and headed inside the lab, waving to Nanaba who was at one of the computers, scrolling and eating what looked like to be some kind of seafood flavored chips.

“Weird choice of flavor, but okay.” 

The short haired blonde glared up at her before dusting of her fingers and crumpling up the now empty bag.

“Hey, i won’t judge your pregnancy cravings.” She said and immediately clamped a hand over her mouth when Hange’s big brown eyes widened in surprise.

“Oops.”

The brunette darted up towards her her friend and grabbed her hands.

“What, When and why haven’t you told me this!” She squealed and Nanaba cringed.

“Ah, sorry. It was going to be a surprise. Mike and I were planning to throw a small little get together and tell everyone. Guess the cat is out of the bag haha.”

It took everything in Hange not to jump around and scream.

“I’m so happy for you guys! Don’t worry I won’t tell-“

She’s suddenly cut off by the sound of her radio crackling.

“Dr. Hange, report to the med bay immediately!”

The brunette paused before holding up a finger at Nanaba

“We will continue this later.” She mumbled before running out of the lab and slamming the down button of the elevator.

She jogged out of the elevator once it descended to the ground floor, and sped out out of the research building and into the the medical bay like a bat out of Hell.

Once the brunette entered the med bay she was almost crashed into a frantic Moblit.

“Ah sorry- Oh Dr. Hange! There’s a bit of a problem..”

The research doctor looked around to see that the med bay was in a complete disarray. People were frantically scrambling about, yelling into their radios.

“What is doing on?” Hange asked, completely puzzled.

“Levi is missing!”

Hange whirled around to see Petra run up to her, panting and clutching her clipboard against her chest, looking up at Hange with panicked eyes.

The speckled woman’s heart lurched as Petra explained further.

“I went to give June a check up and when I came back he was gone, a-an-”

She didn’t let her finish because Hange bolted towards the room Levi was recovering in.

When she bursted through the door she was greeted by Erwin, Mike and Gunther, another medical worker.

“Where is he?!” She panted.

“Gone.” Erwin told her calmly, gesturing towards the bed.

He was no doubt missing, the bed was messy and tossed about and the sheets were strewn of the floor in a damp mess.

“How the hell does a mermyd go missing, he can’t go anywhere with that tail!” Hange shouts in a exasperated manner.

“Maybe,” Gunther piped up from his kneeled position on the floor in front of the bed. “He got up and walked away.”

“What?” Hange says, dumbfounded.

Then he points at something on the floor in front of him and when Hange moved to get a better look her eyes almost bugged out of her head.

It was Levi’s tail, or what once was his tail. It looked like it was shed off.

She squats down to get a better look at it and notices that it’s sitting in a slimy puddle of fluid, Hange wrinkled her nose at the sight.

“Okay, we need to find him before anything happens. So either he’s crawling around with no tail or...” she drifts off and looks up at Mike and Erwin.

“..or he’s sprouted some legs.” Mike finishes.

She almost wanted to laugh but honestly it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that ever happened.

Four teams were sent to search around the area, first one being Hange, Eren, Armin and Mikasa who took the research building and the north side of the enclosures. The second team was Mike Jean and Connie who took the main building and the west side of the enclosures, while the third team was made up of Nanaba, Historia and Sasha who scoured the med bay and the east side of the enclosures. The last team was only made up of Erwin and Oluo who searched the south side of the enclosures. Everyone else was told to continue with their work but keep an eye out for the Mer.

Hange’s group were currently in the research building, Hange and Armin were in the bathroom of the second floor while eren and Mikasa were searching the lab on the third floor. The bathrooms in the research building and the second floor of the main building were spacious and all exclusive, while the rest were just regular gender specific public style restrooms. The one that she and Armin were currently in was in fact one of the inclusive ones. Hange was checking each of the stall last while Armin checked the communal showers, that’s when she heard the teen squeak loudly. The woman poked her head out of the stall that she was in to see the blonde scurry out towards her, cherubic face red as a tomato.

“Um I-I think I found him.” He mumbled nervously.

“Where?”

The boy pointed to the farthest shower stall and Hange quickly made her way over and pulled the door open to reveal Levi’s slumped form on the tiled floor of the shower stall. Hange almost panicked before she realized he was only asleep.

“So.. definitely grew a pair of legs then.” She joked as she examined his newly acquired limbs. Her eyes suddenly snapped away from him when she realized that legs weren’t the only thing that he grew.

Face reddened slightly, she turned to Armin. “Go with Mikasa and Eren, tell Erwin and the others that we found him. Make sure you guys tell your ride that you’re ready to go home.”

She hoped the poor boy wasn’t too scarred from what he saw.

He nodded and once the boy left Hange shrugged off her windbreaker and draped it over the naked mermyd, causing him to startle awake. She was amazed at how he was able to sleep through her and Armin making noise around him.

“Hey, it’s just me,” she whispered to him softly. “Good morning sunshine, you gave us quite the scare.”

Levi blinked blearily up at her before he realized who she was, he then quickly sat up, Hange’s jackets slipping off his bare shoulders and onto his lap.

“Hange.” He whispered hoarsely.

The brunette cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. “Hello.”

He blinked at her before pulling the jacket off of him to check if he still had legs.

Yup, still there.

“Ah! No, no!” Hange squeaked before shoving the jacket back over him. “This stays on, okay? Now that you’re..well, more humanly developed, you can’t just walk around naked.”

Levi just shrugged and let the jacket fall over him. Hange sighed before helping him put it on properly, guiding each arm through the sleeves and zipping it up. She was thankful that he was much smaller then she was because when he stood up the jacket hung low past his waist, covering his most intimate parts.

“Are you okay?” She asked him, looking him over to see if he was hurt. “Do you still feel any pain?” She presses the back of her hand over his forehead feel if he was still overheating and was pleased to find that it felt normal.

The mer just shook his head before grabbing her wrist.

“Fix me, fix this.” He demanded, gesturing towards his new legs.

She bit her lip before sighing. “I was hoping that you knew what happened to you but it sounds like you don’t.”

Levi shook his head again, thin eyebrows furrowing in frustration as his legs wobbled weakly.

“Okay.” Hange breathed before putting an arm around his shoulder to keep him steady. “Let’s get you someplace more comfortable and some more clothes on you before we start dissecting what happened.”

She guided him out of the bathroom and up to her office where she searched for something he could wear, she ended up only finding a pair of shorts. 

“This will have to do for now.” She smiled as she handed them to Levi who just picked at them with one of his clawed fingers.

“You put them on your legs.” Hange giggled as she showed him.

Once Levi was appropriate enough she radioed Erwin to come to her office.

Once the tall blonde man entered her office his eyebrows skyrocketed up his forhead once he saw Levi.

“So Mike was right then.” He said in faint awe as he eyed the Mer cautiously.

“Mhm.” She hummed before turning back to Levi who was currently sat in an old but comfortable couch that she kept in her office. The Mer squirmed uncomfortably underneath the two human’s gaze.

“Levi this is Erwin, he’s sort of the boss around here.” Hange chuckled and Levi only glares at the man.

Erwin sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

“This..this is something we are not equipped to handle.”

Hange grimaced a little.

“What I mean is that we can’t just put him back in his enclosure, He’s human now.” Erwin’s voice lowered at the last part.

“I can still hear you and I’m definitely not human.” Levi piped up, gesturing to the gills that were still on his neck.

Hange perked up and moved to sit next to him, carefully grabbing his chin in her hand to tilt it out of the way so she could examine him further. Her hands traced softly around his gills before moving up brush his dark hair behind his still pointed ears. 

Levi blushes underneath her touch, squirming this way and that as she poked and prodded him thoroughly. Her hands were soft though and gentle in her approach, he almost purred. Once she was satisfied, Hange turned to Erwin.

“It’s like he’s half human and half Mermyd, at least from what I can observe. Perhaps it’s his body’s way of adapting to his new life in captivity.”

Erwin crossed his arms over his chest him deep thought before sighing.

“We still can’t keep him here, even if he’s half human now. It would be a violation of his rights.”

She doubted Levi knew anything about human rights but Erwin did have a point there. It wouldn’t be fair or humane to keep him in an enclosure.

“We can send him to a facility or find someplace that can deal with this or-”

“No.” Hange blurted out before taking a deep breath. “We can’t send him someplace else.”

“Hange.” Erwin sighed but she wasn’t finished.

“How do you know that they’ll take good care of him? For all we know they could sell him off to someone with the right kind of money o-or hand him over to some weird circus or-“

“Okay Hange, I hear you. But like I said, we can’t keep him here, not while he’s like that.” Erwin tells her while gesturing to Levi.

This whole time the Mermyd sat there quietly toying with the zipper of Hange’s jacket while watching the interaction between the two humans in front of him with half of his attention. He was honestly too exhausted to worry about his fate at this point, he just wanted to curl up someplace and sleep forever.

“I’ll take him then.” Hange stated.

“What?” Erwin gave her an incredulous look.

“I’ll take him with me until we can find a solution that’s good for him.”

Erwin pondered this for a moment before turning his attention towards the ravenette.

“Levi, you do have a say in what happens to you, if you object to this you can tell us.”

Both of their eyes were on him once again and Levi felt as if he were caught in a net and dropped into a lagoon full of sharks. The mer just shrugged and curled into himself, tucking his knees underneath his chin and clenching his hands around his ankles.

“That’s the best answer we’re gonna get.” Hange deadpanned.

“..Okay.” Erwin sighed once again. “ Alright, take him home with you, it’s getting late anyways.”

Hange sighed in relief.

“We will discuss this further tomorrow.” 

“Right!” She exclaimed as she stood up from her seat, pulling Levi to his feet with her catching him off guard in the process. He had to grip onto her arm tightly to prevent himself from falling over.

“Oi don’t pull me so suddenly, shitty glasses!” He warned.

“Ah, sorry.” She apologized before saying a quick goodbye Erwin, grabbing her bag and guiding Levi out to the elevator.

“How did you even get to the second floor?” Hange asked him once they were inside the elevator.

“I climbed.”

“Oh so you used the stairs.” She spoke as she reached to press the button for the first floor.

“Is that what you call it?” He pondered before gasping when the elevator lurched down, miking his stomach suddenly drop.

Hange laughed at his reaction as she helped to steady him.

“C’mon, let’s go.” She coaxed him out of the elevator and guided him out of the building and to the parking lot, Levi kept close to her as he gazed at the now darkening world around them like a newborn baby deer. Hanged checked the time on her phone, it was almost nine.

Once they reached her car, she unlocked it and opened the passenger door and gestured for Levi to get in. 

The Mer eyed the vehicle suspiciously.

“What is it?” He asked her, not taking his eyes off it.

“It’s called a car and it’s going to take us home.” She responded, patting her hand against the the car door.

“I thought that’s what these are for.” He deadpanned while pointing down at his new feet.

“No, silly.” The brunette giggled. “If we used those to get home it would take forever, and we’d get really tired quickly. Cars help us get there quickly and safely.”

Levi gave the car one last weary look before shrugging. 

“Okay, I trust you.” He said before awkwardly sliding into the leather seat.

Hange gave him a warm smile before closing the door.

He was beginning to trust her, that’s a good sign, she thought. It’s going to be easier to look after him when he’s not constantly trying to rip your hand off, though she thinks he wouldn’t dare to. Now that he has legs he looks pretty much human to her, besides the other dignifying qualities that show that he really isn’t human. She was going to have to be careful, she couldn’t have just anybody know what he was, it could be dangerous for him. 

Hange hummed quietly as she made her way to the driver’s side. 

“Worry about it tomorrow morning, Zoe. For now just get him home safely.” She whispered to herself before opening the door and climbing inside.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ha! Y’all probably thought I was dead.

Levi woke up with a start.

He wasn’t where he was supposed do be, his body felt like it wasn’t supposed to be.

The mer quickly sat up, steel eyes flashing sharply and his gills flared up in a threatening manner. He looked around to see that he was on a large bed with a thick quilt covering his bottom half. 

The raven lifted the quilt to see that he still had those smooth human legs, and was still wearing the shorts and jacket that Hange gave him.

Hange.

Where the hell was that shitty woman?

Levi looked up and noticed that he was in a room, but the place looked like a monsoon had washed over it.

What kind of beast lived in such a place?

The answer came to him in the form of memory, that shitty woman lived here and was responsible for this shitty mess.

Last night’s events came rushing back. After growing a pair of human legs, he checked and yes they were still there, he managed to literally walk out of the medical room he was in and get himself lost while looking for Hange. She found him asleep in the one of the many bathrooms in the research building, completely naked and much more human like. She was shocked at the new development but also because of his lack of clothing, which again he did not completely understand why it was such a big deal. After much convincing from Erwin, the brunette scientist ended up taking him home with her. As soon as they arrived to her humble abode, she took note of the Mer’s exhaustion and let him take her bed, he passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

And now here he was, wide awake and sat up straight on his caretaker’s bed and glaring at the mess around him.

Humans were truly a disgusting species.

Sure, the ocean was just as disgusting but Levi always kept himself and the space around him clean. Always scrubbing out the scum and sea foam from the rocks of the underwater caves he would sleep in with sponges and neatly crafting makeshift beds with the finest peices of sea weed he could find. Other Mermyds would make fun of him for it but he didn’t care.

This mess around him was irritating him beyond belief.

The mer tossed the bed sheet off of him and climbed out of the bed before clumsily getting to to his feet. His toes wiggled comfortably at the soft feel of the carpeted floor beneath him. The half man crossed the room with much more ease than the night before and examined the area with care. 

The room itself was modest, there here shelves mounted on the cream colored walls that were stacked to the brim haphazardly with books. Next to the bed he slept in was a dresser table that had a small alarm clock and various of half empty cups of who knows what and random wrappers and crumpled up papers.

There was a desk near the door and closet, it held a mess of books, papers, charging cords, pens and pencils. The Chair in front of it was draped with clothing that was also strewn all over the floor.

Levi sighed and bent over to pick up the clothes on the floor and placed onto the chair with the rest of them when something on the desk caught his eye. It was a picture frame, of course but the ravenette had heard stories about how humans could capture the souls of another into into a small square and was awfully curious if this was what hey were referring to. The Mer leaned closer and cocked his head, it was the image of Hange and two other people both blondes one man one woman, they both looked familiar. The woman’s hair was very short and her skin was fair, the man’s hair was a bit long, the bangs covered most of his face and he also had a prominent mustache. They all had on goofy smiles and Hange had two fingers sticking up in the form of a peace sign.

He may not be completely human but he was pretty sure Hange still had her soul.

The mer padded over to the door and slowly turned the knob just like he’d seen Hange do and peered down the hallway. The house was quiet and a bit dark, the only light was coming from the rising sun outside and spilled through the curtains. 

He strolled out into the hall and stopped in front a flight of stairs. Levi glared at the stairs with great determination and began to slowly descend them, one foot after the other while tightly gripping the wooden railing. He grinned as he made it to the last step and turned the corner, his bare foot suddenly struck something hard and caused him to fall over with a surprised yelp.

A hiss escaped him when he felt pain bloom from his stubbed toes and curled up into himself on the floor. After a few seconds he sat up to look at what had tripped him.

A cardboard box.

Many of them were scattered around near the landing of the stairs.

The mer frowned and shook his head as he got back up onto his bare feet. He slowly made his way around the boxes and found himself in another room, the kitchen. Like a lost child in a grocery store, Levi stumbled around. It wasn’t until his stomach gargled loudly did he realize that he was extremely ravenous.

Food.

The animalistic side in him protested for sustenance, a low growl rising from his chest as he breathed in deep. The mer sniffed the air around him and followed the scent of what he assumed was food and ended up in front of the refrigerator. It was silver and had a touch pad on the right door. It was a smart fridge, but of course Levi didn’t know any of that.

He sniffed around it and inspected it with a cautious gaze, before grabbing one of the handles and yanking it. 

It didn’t open, but the whole refrigerator almost tipped over from the force.

Levi huffed and attempted to pull it open again, a little more gentle this time. Another growl ripped from his throat in frustration before he slammed a hand against it, right where the touch pad was. The refrigerator beeped and he hissed and skittered backwards at the sound. Both the fridge and the freezer door opened, effectively surprising the raven yet again.

Once he was sure the contraption wasn’t going to attack him, he approached it and sniffed inside. He shivered from the cold and tucked himself further into Hange’s jacket as he peeked inside of the fridge.

The scent of fish wafted lightly in his nostrils and made a beeline towards the freezer and produced a bag of frozen salmon. Levi sat himself on the kitchen floor infront of the refrigerator and tore the bag open. He frowned in annoyance when a few fillets fell onto the floor beneath him. 

After he picked up the mess he took one and attempted to take a large bite. He hissed in mild pain and extreme aggravation when his sharp fangs met cold hard resistance. The mer continued to gnaw on the frozen peice of fish out of hunger and desperation, his teeth made a loud clacking sound as they hit against the frozen surface. Once he got fed up he just tossed the fish back into the freezer and huffed.

Then a different smell teased his senses.

It was salty and meaty, and it made his stomach grumble loudly.

Levi leaned his small frame into the fridge side and dug around for the source of the delicious smell.

He produced a package of smoked cold cut ham.

The small ravenette wasted no time on ripping it open and shoving the slices of deli meat into his watering mouth. His eyes widened in surprise at the taste and he hastily shoved more of it into his already full mouth, which he would have found disgusting but he was too hungry to care.

It was was absolutely scrumptious, the meat. Of course nothing could compare to fresh fish, but this was absolutely hitting the spot.

“...And while he is in your care, you will be responsible for him and his actions and needs. As long as he is out here in the world the way he is he will be considered human. It will be your responsibility that he understands what that means, we don’t need anymore mass hysteria about Mermyds being dangerous and evil creatures. The tabloids would have a field day.” 

Hange chuckled wryly at Erwin’s last comment.

They were all in his office in a meeting about Levi. It was just Hange, Erwin and Mike.

“I will make sure that everyone else here knows about the current situation as well, but for now it’s business as usual”

“Understood,” Hange nodded as she got up from her seat in front of Erwin’s desk. “Permission to leave early today? I kinda left the grumpy fish alone at home, haha.

Her boss gave her an unimpressed glare. “Just go.” He waved at her dismissively.

She just grinned sheepishly before grabbing her bag and waved goodbye to both Erwin and Mike and trotted our of the door.

Half an hour later, Hange arrived home and almost tripped over a box on her way over to the dining room area.

“Jesus I should really unpack those.” She muttered to herself as she caught herself against the wall that connected to the kitchen.

It’s been six months since she moved into this house. It was her mother’s house, she had inherited it when she died those months ago. If she was honest, she hadn’t really felt anything when she died. Their relationship wasn’t really normal nor close. Her mother would leave her with her father a lot to business travel when she was young. She’s much more close to her father, even though now he lives in Germany. But know here she was living alone in a unnecessarily huge house- well not alone, she now had Levi to look after.

Hange huffed and set her bag on the dinner table before making her way into the kitchen. The brunette immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw that both of the doors of the refrigerator were open. She quickly walked up to it and saw that inside was a whole mess of empty containers, bags and wrappers, but nothing inside of the freezer was messed with except for a bag of frozen salmon fillets. The biologist let out a surprised squawk.

“Who the hell ate all of my food?!?”

The culprit waddled into the kitchen with a bored expression, barefoot and clad in the same spandex shorts and her jacket from the day before.

“Levi?! Seriously?!!!!”

He flinched at her volume and gave her a confused but annoyed look.

“Why must you humans be so loud?” He grumbled.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe because YOU EMPTIED OUT MY FRIDGE!”

She knew that Mermyds had quite an appetite but damn.

Levi shrunk back away from her, sensing anger rising.

“I was hungry...” he mumbled, not looking her in the eyes.

All of the anger in her drained out once she saw his demeanor. She sighed and closed both doors of the fridge before walking up to Levi and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have screamed like that, you don’t know any better. You were just following your instincts. I also shouldn’t leave you alone anymore.” She told him apologetically.

The raven looked up at her and she gave him a warm, reassuring smile that made him feel weird again.

“I have an idea!” She perks up and Levi flinches away again, this time from her exuberance.

“I was planning on doing some grocery shopping this week...that was before you suddenly become so human.”

Levi gave her a death glare. “Not human.”

Hange grimaced and laughed awkwardly. “Ah, right sorry, before you grew legs, that’s what I meant.”

“... and I can’t really leave you alone again, you’ll probably chew on the furniture or something.” The brunette joked and the mer gave her a confused look.

“You look acceptably human,” his caretaker continued as she examined him from head to toe. “We’re just going to have to conceal the parts of you that are..not human.”

He fidgeted underneath her experimental gaze. The Mermyd was able to keep up with what the woman was saying, he just didn’t know what the hell she was thinking to do with him. And what the hell was ‘grocery shopping’ ?

His thoughts were interrupted when Hange grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along with her.

“Come with me!” She said over her shoulder as she dragged her upstairs and towards her bedroom.

Levi tried his best to keep up with her, his bare feet often tripping and catching against the steps.

“Oi,Oi you shitty human! What did I say about suddenly doing that?! Are your ears that filthy?!” He spat at her as they finally entered her room and he yanked his wrist from her grasp and rubbed at it with his other hand.

“Sorry, sorry, I’ll be careful next time hehe.” She apologized before heading to her closet to dig through it.

Hange’s companion made a ‘Tch’ sound before sitting himself on the edge of her bed that he woke up in earlier to observe her actions.

“Can you explain all this mess?” He grumbled and Hange emerged from the closet with a sheepish grin and a black turtleneck sweater.

“Haha, I don’t really have the time to do house cleaning. Of course it must have been easy for you, the whole ocean was your home.”

A sudden sadness passed through his system as he looked down at his lap. He missed the ocean, he missed the feel of it’s salty currents against his slick tail as he glided through the blue canvas. He missed racing against Farlan, from the bottom of the reef floor to the surface of the water, not quite breaking through it as Isabel would cheer along. His heart squeezed at the memory as his eyes began to glisten.

Hange suddenly wished she hadn’t said anything once she saw the moisture that began to collect in his silver orbs.

“Oh no, hey I’m sorry, I should’ve known that would have been a sore subject for you.” She said to him softly as she sat next to him, close enough that their shoulders were touching.

The mermyd closed his eyes and shook his head softly, causing a lone tear to escape and trail down his cheek. Hange really had to resist the urge to wipe it away.

Levi wasn’t stupid, he new that he wouldn’t be able to return to the life he had before, living- no surviving in the vast blue. He had lost too much, Isabel, Farlan and his tail, it wouldn’t be the same. He is so much more vulnerable, subjected to live among the humans now. Isabel would be so envious of him, she was so obsessed with the human world. She’d often watch them from the surface as they would walk along the shores of the beach with families and small little humans-children, yes children. Isabel taught him most of what he knows about humans and their manurisms, she would often drag him up to the surface to do ‘people watching’ is what she would call it. 

A sudden small noise escaped him, similar to the whine of a dog, when Hange wrapped her arms around his small frame.

“W-what are you doing, shitty glasss?” He sputtered embarrassingly, his face was pressed against the nape of her neck and he’d hope she couldn’t feel the way it burned at their closeness.

She smelled of the water from the place he was in before- the ‘rehabilitation center?’- sweat and a hint of something sweet that he could not decipher. The mixture was kind of weird but it comforted him a little.

“I’m hugging you, grumpy.” The brunette said in slight amusement as leaned her head against his and ran her thin fingers through the shorter side of his hair.

“..and why do you keep doing it?” He asked in confusion, not yet surrendering to her hold, Hange sighed at his tenseness.

“I do it to help you feel better, that’s usually the case with human contact- or any physical contact really. You know that during the process of skin to skin contact a type of endorphin is realeased-”

The ravenette tuned her out, he’s been around her enough to know when she was about to talk his ear off, he didn’t hate it but he really couldn’t grasp everything she was saying ‘endorphins?’ Hah?

He found himself relaxing in her arms, Hange had noticed to but didn’t comment, she just smiled and gave herself a mental pat on the back for her success.

The two of the stayed like that for a while, Levi let his slate eyes droop as he snaked his arms, that were trapped in between the both of them, around her waist and his clawed fingers gripped the back of her shirt just like he had done the night he broke down.

“I’m glad that you’re enjoying this.” The biologist teased as she patted his head gently.

He blushed furiously and yanked himself away from her with an unconvincing glare that made the bespeckled woman laugh profusely.

“That’s enough of that.” The mer stated before crossing his arms in front of his chest and looked at anywhere but her.

Hange chuckled and shook her head, aburn flyaways shifting from the movement, and pushed her round frames up the bridge of her nose as they began to slide down.

“Okay haha, but put this on.” She tossed the black turtleneck sweater that she recovered from the closet at to him and got up to rummage in it once again.

Levi picked the garment up with the sharp nails of his thumb and forefinger, not sure how exactly it worked yet. It did not have an opening in the front like the jacket he was wearing, so he guessed that you had to shove it over yourself. He did just that.

Hange caught him before he could pull it on.

“Wait, wait!” She giggled at him and he paused his actions to give her a confused glare.

“What? I’m putting it on.” He grunted at her and she had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep herself from laughing. He was halfway in the process of putting on the sweater, his head was poking out through the head hole and one arm was halfway in one sleeve while the other dangled helplessly.

“You have to take the jacket off first or you’ll suffocate.” She explained as she pulled the sweater off of him and unzipped the jacket and let him shrug it off.

That’s when she blushed lightly at the sight of his bare chest, it was like she was looking at some kind of sculpture. She shook her head, he had to swim for all of his life so of course he was ripped- it was natural, yes very natural, why was she acting like she’d never seen it before?

Levi sat there in front of her with his usual ‘bored with life’ expression, only wearing a pair of her spandex wet-shorts and waiting for her to come out of whatever trance she was in.

He made a small grunting sound when Hange quickly snapped out of it and quickly pulled the sweater over him and helped him slip his arms through each sleeve. Once it was on, she handed him a pair of her baggy boy jeans and told him to put it on like he had put on the shorts, but of course remove the shorts first. The mermyd nodded and stood up to take off the shorts and Hange quickly spun around and made a mental note to buy him some underwear.

Once she was sure he had the jeans on, she turned around and snorted at the image in front of her. The jeans were a bit too long for him and he left them unbuttoned, Levi frown down at himself and then looked at her for help. She assisted him by pulling the pants a little higher for him, effectively earning herself a surprised squeak from the poor mer, he had to hold onto her shoulders to keep himself upright as she bottoned it up. The brunette then bent down to cuff each of the pant legs so it ended just above his ankles.

“There!” She chirped before getting up to head back to the closet to look for her smallest fitting shoes, she ended up deciding on an old pair of high top chucks. When she presented them to Levi he grimaced and shook his head at her.

“I’m not putting those on.” He states while glaring at the dirtiness of the shoes, and Hange rolls her amber eyes.

“It’s fine Levi, humans wear shoes all the time. You can’t just be barefoot, you’ll hirt your poor little feet and get them dirty.” 

The short half human glared at her when she called his feet little, but it was true, his feet were small. Shoes just looked so restricting and uncomfortable, but he also didn’t want to get his feet all torn up and disgusting so he complied and sat on the bed. Hange gave him some socks to slip on, after a long explanation on what they were used for, and helped fit the shoes on his feet.

“Now,” the woman sighed as she sat crouched down on her heels in front of him. “ I will eventually teach you how to tie your laces but for now I’ll do it for you so watch me closely.”

Levi nodded and directed his attention to what she was doing. She grabbed both of the laces and crossed them over each other before pulling one underneath the other and yanked them to tighten the shoe. Them she formed one lace into a loop and wrapped the other one around the loop before pulling it underneath and creating another loop and tightening both of them so that they now resembled bunny ears.

“Ta-da!” Hange cheered up at him while gesturing towards the now tied laces after she finished the other shoe. If he were anybody else they would be embarrassed with the fact the he couldn’t even tie his own shoes and that she had to do it for them like they were a child. But Levi was different, he didn’t know any better, he didn’t know the norms of the human world, hence why he sat there with an impressed look on his face as he studied Hange’s handiwork.

“Don’t worry I’ll show you again later,” she reassured the raven headed mer as she gestured for him to stand from the bed. “Let’s get a good look at you know.”

The brunette looked him up and down, left to right to make sure she didn’t miss anything while Levi stood awkwardly tugging at the neck of the sweater, it covered his gills uncomfortably and it was hot. 

“Hm, we’ll this will work for now until we can get you something more comfortable and less warm, especially since it’s summertime, but hopefully nobody will question it- Oh wait your ears!”

She reached a hand over and gently brushed her fingertips against his pointed, web-like ears and Levi shuddered and slapped her hand away before covering his ear with the sleeve of his sweater with a glare.

“Sensitive, huh?” Hange asked him with a sincere expression and he nodded. “Ah, sorry.”

The brunette quickly walked over to her nightstand and rummaged through one of the dressers before pulling out a dark blue beanie and let out a small noise of success. She the walked back over to the small mermyd and carefully fitted it over his head snugly, making sure to cover his unusual ears in the process. Taking a step back to examine hime one last time, she cooed adoringly.

“Oh, you look so cute!” She squealed and Levi’s pale cheeks darkened with a shade of pink.

“Shut up shitty glasses I don-” Hange pulled him in front of a long mirror that hung behind her bedroom door and he frowned deeply. “Oh I look stupid, humans and their stupid ‘clothes’, how ridiculous.” The raven crossed his arms like a pouting child.

“Would you rather have yourself exposed to world? Our society has already deemed your species as dangerous and hostile, once they catch wind that they can somehow evolve to roam on land they will panic, lock you up and subject you to all kinds of unethical experimentation.”

The mer blinked and was silent for a few seconds before catching Hange’s hard gaze with his own conflicted one.

“Levi, it’s my job to make sure that none of that happens. What I- what we do, back where we took care of you, we make sure that all kinds of marine life, exotic, dangerous and all in between, are cared for and protected. You’re no different, i promised you before and I’m keeping it. I promise we’ll find out what’s happening to you as well.” Her voice became more tender towards the end and Levi had never felt so cared for before, it almost freaked him out.

He swallowed thickly before turning to look at Hange in the eyes, his own betraying the emotions inside him.

“I believe you.” He muttered and she smiled widely, light brown eyes shining softly behind her crystal lenses. The moment was ruined when the brunette ruffled his fringe affectionately. He waved her hand away and scowled before turning back to the mirror to fix it.

“Aliright lets go now, to restock the fridge!” Hange cheered and grabbed her wallet and keys from her work bag and gestured for Levi to follow her.

She ended up taking them to a nearby local superstore, after parking she skipped out of the car with newfound energy to open the door for Levi. The half man stepped out of the car with wary eyes as he examined the parking lot. Hange tugged him along with her by the sleeve of his sweater as she went over some rules.

“Stay close to me, if you need to use the restroom let me know and if you see anything that peaks your interest tell me before trying to take it with you haha.” She laughed when she saw him purse his lips and nod. 

On their way towards the entrance of the store, Hange grabbed a shopping cart and told him to push it along side her. As they approached the entrance, the automatic doors slide open, effectively startling Levi which caused Hange to laugh loudly and drag the surprised mer through the entrance.

The raven’s eyes became comically wider when he took in the sight of the superstore. Everything was bright and there were so many people talking, walking around and shopping. His senses were on overload, multiple sights, smells and sounds were hitting him at once and it took him a moment to ground himself and focus on pushing the cart and staying by Hange’s side.

An hour and half full cart later, Hange was escorting Levi down the snacks isle when something caught his attention.

It was a bag of Golfish crackers.

He cocked his head at the packages design, its bold lettering and bright oranges, yellows and white coloring. But what most peaked his interest was the pictures of the smiling, fish shaped snacks, it was oddly cute to him.

“Mommy, can I have them pleeease?!”

The mermyd whipped his head to the left of him to see a child shove a package of Oreos up to him mom as he pleaded for her to take them. His mother sighed and nodded, gesturing for the child to place the cookies into their own cart as she went back to her list. Levi took the scene in before grabbing the golfish off the shelf and turning to search for his caretaker.

He found her near the kettle cooked chips with their shopping cart, the moment she spotted him she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Levi, I turn my back for one second and you run off. You can’t just-Oh?”

The brunette is cut off by her companion when he presented the bag of snacks to her with a determined expression. She glanced at the bag then at him before raising and eyebrow.

“Is that what you want?” Levi nodded.

“Oh..kay, we’ll it’s a good thing that Erwin gave me a budget to spend on you then haha. Go ahead and put it in the cart and let’s go get you some clothes.”

A tiny grin formed as he inwardly praised himself for his success before he placed the snacks into the cart and pushed it after the brunette.

They headed out of the snacks isle and towards the non food area of the superstore when a sudden familiar voice called out to them.

“Dr. Hange?”

Both her and Levi whirled around to see Eren, Armin and Mikasa standing there with wide eyes.

“Oh hey kids!” Hange greeted them with a wave, but they were all staring at the now bipedal mermyd next to her.

“Levi?!” Eren said with a befuddled look. “You’re..walking..”

“On two legs...” Armin continued.

“So Jean wasn’t lying.” Mikasa finished with an impressed expression.

Hange chuckled. “Nope it’s all true, Levi has seemed to morph, how and why it happened is still a mystery.”

The whole time they spoke, Levi was just leaning in the cart and glaring at the kids.

“So what’s going to happen to him now then?” Armin asked her curiously as he waved to Levi, who rolled his pale eyes in response.

“I promise I will explain everything to you and the others when I get back to work, but for now I would rather not talk about this in public. I don’t want to expose this to the media, that would only be nothing but problematic.” The woman explained calmly and the teens all nodded.

“Alright, is there anything we can do to help?” Eren piped up.

Hange smiles at the young boy’s dedication. “If there’s anything you can do I’ll let you guys know, perhaps you can help with his acclimation to human society?”

They all nodded and Eren turned to Levi with a grin. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you with everything there is to know.”

Levi wrinkled his nose in disgust. “I’d rather stick my head in a sharks mouth.”

“I’m still working on his social skills.” Hange chuckled. “ I’ll see you kids later then!”

After bidding them a goodbye, the pair continued their way towards the men’s clothing section. Hange grabbed some underwear for him, boxers, she assumed it would be the most comfortable type for the touch sensitive mer. She also got some socks and basic white tee shirts, making sure she grabbed the the closest size estimate, If anything she could always exchange them. Next came the actual clothes, everything she grabbed for him she had him try on in the fitting rooms with her, which he wouldn’t have minded if the stalls weren’t so small, their close proximity made him hotter than the sweater he was wearing.

They ended up getting a couple of thin, long sleeved turtlenecked shirts in various colors, some regular shirts for when he isn’t out in the public, a couple of beanies including this one cute one that Hange loved, it had little bear ears on them. Levi was opposed but Hange got it anyway, she also bought him sandals and shoes that fit him nicely, some jeans, sweatpants, joggers and shorts.

Hange then moved on to get him some toiletries, that’s when Levi became a little hungry so she let him have his goldfish. The sight of him casually munching on the snack while trailing after the bespeckled woman was almost comical. They neared the section of household items, where Hange was looking for some pillows and bedsheets for the mer, she had explained to him that she’d be ordering him his own bed to put in the guest room she had in her house once she cleared it out. He had nodded as he listened along to what she was saying to him when he suddenly stopped. The woman noticed he wasn’t following her anymore and turned to see him standing a couple feet behind her, one arm holding his bag of goldfish crackers while the other hung limply at his side. She almost thought that something was wrong until she saw the awestruck look on his usually non-expressive fave.

“Hey, Levi don’t fall behind now....” the doctor’s mouth formed into a small ‘oh’ when she realized what Levi was intensely gazing at.

It was a pillow plushie of a cat, but it also had a Mermyd tail.

Levi had read about cats with Hange during their many reading sessions, he found them really cute and soft looking. But this plushie pillow held some sort of spell on him, the cat had a tail and he had never seen something so adorable in his life...well besides Hange’s eyes but he could dwell on them later. The mer quickly placed his snacks bag into their cart before dusting off his hands and grabbing the pillow, it was so soft and squishy that he almost sighed.

Hange found it hard to contain her fondness as she watch the display in front of her. Levi was acting extremely, adorably and innocently cute right now, childlike wonder reading across his pale face, it made her heart squeeze. She found it hard to say no when the ravenette looked to her for permission, she nodded with a smile and was rewarded with a sight she wished she could capture with her phone camera.

Levi hugged the plushie with a small smile that he tried to hide, as a light blush dusted over his cheeks.

Yup.

She could have died contentedly right there.

“Leeeeviii, you’re being unfairly cute you little guppy.” Hange cooed at him and he glared at her.

“Shut up.” He grumbled but still held on to his new pillow.

Hange giggled before gesturing for him to follow her.

“Let’s go now, it’s getting late.” Levi nodded and dutifully followed her like a puppy.

They paid, with the budget card Erwin gave her, and made their way out of the store and to her car where Levi helped out everything in the back while simultaneously never letting go of the cat pillow.

Once she closed the trunk she opened the passenger door for Levi so he could get in, before closing it and climbing into the drivers seat and starting the car.

“I just realized that we almost spent the entire budget that Erwin gave me for you, hehe. Hope he won’t be too angry when he finds out.”

What the two of them didn’t realize though, was the fact that during their whole shopping trip they were being followed by two inconspicuous men. They now were watching them intently from their own car as Hange pulled out of the parking lot.

The younger of the two pulled out his phone and dialed a number. After two rings the person in the other line answered.

“Hey boss.....yeah it’s him, no-yes sir.....he changed-yes-no I mean shifted.”

The older man next to him watched him from the corner of his eye.

“....yes sir, legs sir....very human like. That means it worked sir, does it not?....sorry sir......okay sir.” He hung up and looked to the older man.

“Start driving, boss wants to know where the half is is staying at.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here ya go, this chapter is more of a filler but it’s much needed (levi needs stuffs okay) but we’re getting closer to the introduction of one of the baddies yay!
> 
> Next chap: Levi takes his first bath as a human, how does it go? Well you’ll see 😂

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I originally started this fic on tumblr (@dontatmethanks)and was persuaded to post it on here, thank you @mischievous-maiden!<3
> 
> Btw I’m just going to disclose the fact that I don’t know anything about marine biology and such so bare with me D:
> 
> Thanks for reading! <3


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